Selling pressure continued on Friday, pulling down the Nifty futures contracts. The fall in Nifty futures was sharper than in the cash market, but optimism prevailed as the contracts continued to be at a premium.
Nifty April futures fell 15.35 points to close at 958.30 as against a 12.40 point fall in the S&P CNX Nifty at 949.80. Nifty May futures declined 15.95 points to 962 and June futures closed down 14.70 points at 962.30.
Volumes in April Nifty futures dropped to 20210 contracts. The open interest was also lower at 17172 contracts.
The total volume of the derivatives market shot up to Rs 4077.88 crore (previous Rs 4077.88 crore) with 1,41,367 contracts traded.
Index futures clocked a volume of Rs 424.25 crore (previous Rs 570.01 crore) with 22,058 contracts.
The implied cost-of-carry for the April futures stood at 34 per cent and that of May at 11.64 per cent.
Technology stocks were the most active in stock futures. Satyam Computer, Infosys, Digital and Polaris were the top traded counters. Open interest in Infosys rose by a whopping 86 per cent.
In stock options, Satyam, Infosys and RIL strikes made it to the top traded counters. Satyam call at 140 and 150 witnessed hectic activity, with volatility on the rise. Infosys call at 2800, which was introduced today, clocked 1180 trades.
In Nifty options, 6,252 contracts were traded at a notional value of Rs 124.74 crore (previous Rs 177.18 crore). The put/call ratio improved to 0.56 (previous 0.62).
