March Nifty closes lower

DERIVATIVES REPORT

The volumes in the derivatives segment were significantly lower on the first day of the new series with the turnover on the NSE's futures and options segment at Rs 8364 crore. A total of 2.4 lakh contracts only were traded.

The total outstanding position was close to 46 crore shares. Index futures recorded a turnover of Rs 2,171 crore while stock futures registered a turnover of Rs 32.70 crore shares.

In the futures segment the top traded contracts were those of Tata Steel, State Bank of India, Arvind Mills, Reliance Industries and ONGC among others.

The March Nifty futures closed at 2056.20, a discount to the cash Nifty closing of 2060.90 at the end of the day's session.

Dealers said that there was no fresh build-up of positions ahead of the Railway Budget on Saturday and the Union Budget on Monday. Investors are waiting to see what kind of announcements are there in the Budget before they take a call on the markets.

The cumulative positions of foreign institutional investors as a percentage of the total gross market position in the derivative segment as on February 24, 2005 was 33.61 per cent.