The Nifty futures moved in line with the cash markets and managed small gains on the last trading session of the week as investors turned cautious ahead of the weekend. Only the June and July futures saw trades and ended at a premium to the underlying. Nifty June futures settled at 1086, up 1.60 and July at 1091, up 1.95 points over Thursday's close.
There was a drop in volumes in the near month futures, while volumes in the July futures inched higher. Open interest also followed the same trend. On the BSE, only the June futures managed to attract trades among BSE Sensex futures. While the cash markets ended with marginal gains the futures declined. Volumes also inched up a tad.
Index option also saw a drop in volumes in a market that was looking for direction. The Nifty June call at 1100 was traded the most with 84 contracts. Open interest in the contract rose 12 per cent. Puts made up most of the top traded index options. The Nifty June put at 1080 traded 78 contracts up from 51 contracts yesterday. Other call in demand were the June call at 1080 and 1060. Other puts traded were the June put at 1060, 1070 and 1020.
Four stocks hogged the limelight in the stocks options segment. Satyam continues to be the most favoured. Its June call at Rs 240 with 924 contracts was traded the most. Other contracts were the HPCL June call at Rs 300, BPCL June call at Rs 280 and Telco June call at Rs 150.
Among stock futures, the Satyam June futures generated 5893 trades and ended at Rs 233.20 marginally higher than the cash close of Rs 233.10. Tata Steel and MNTL saw good activity in the cash markets which was mirrored in the futures segment. Tata Steel June futures ended at Rs 132.80 against the cash closing of Rs 132. MTNL gained over 8 per cent in the cash segment at Rs 143, its futures closed at 144.05.
