Jan futures draw premium

DERIVATIVES REPORT

Volumes in the derivatives segment were fairly high with the NSE's futures and options segment clocking a turnover of Rs 13,074 crore with 3.6 lakh contracts being traded.

The turnover in stock futures was at Rs 7,113 crore and in index futures at Rs 4,370 crore. The most active futures contracts were those of Tisco, ACC, TCS and Satyam among others.

Nifty January futures were trading at a discount to the spot Nifty during the day, finally closed at a premium. The futures closed at 1,934.80 against the spot closing of 1,932.90 at the close.

The Nifty also shed around ten lakh shares in open interest. Figures at the end of the day showed that the Nifty open interest put-call ratio also went up.

There has been a build up in open interest in Nifty puts, especially in the 1,900 strike. Marketmen said that it would provide a strong support level.

There were certain stocks which saw substantial addition in open interest such as ACC (14 lakh shares), Gujarat Ambuja (14 per cent) among others.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers to the tune of 13.8 lakh shares in Nifty futures on Friday and were buyers to the tune of Rs 408 crore.

The cumulative FII positions as percentage of total gross market position in the derivative segment as on January 14, 2005 was 27.14 per cent.