Indecisiveness on the Street

F&O OUTLOOK

After opening weak, on the back of negative global cues, the markets closed deep in the red. The Nifty closed at 5,154, down 2.39 per cent and Sensex ended at 17,617.60, down 2.53 per cent.

The derivatives turnover increased considerably, up by Rs 8,000 crore to Rs 43,987 crore, largely on account of intra-day trading in Nifty and key stock futures.

The Nifty February futures witnessed trading volumes of Rs 15,807 crore (6.15 lakh contracts). Despite this, the open interest increased by a mere Rs 12 crore.

The trading volumes in 50-Nifty futures aggregated Rs 8,100 crore, but positions worth only Rs 565 crore were carried forward.

Among the stock futures, short covering was seen in as many as 25 Nifty stocks including Reliance Industries, HDFC, Bajaj Auto, Mahindra & Mahindra and Grasim.

Fresh shorts were seen in ICICI Bank, ONGC, Unitech, NTPC, Larsen & Toubro, Hindustan Unilever and Sail. The prices of these futures declined by around three to four per cent, with almost 30-70 of the day's trading volumes being carried forward.

The Nifty PCR increased to 0.96 from 0.93 due to open interest addition, particularly in 5200 and 5300 Put options. The options traders exhibited interest in trading out-of-the-money Calls and Puts.

Of the total Call options open interest of 16.45 million, 74 per cent was seen above the 5,300 levels. Of the Put options open interest of 15.75 million shares, 65 per cent was below 5,100. This indicates indecisiveness among the F&O participants.