Tata Steel, Andhra Bank futures top draws

DERIVATIVES REPORT

Volumes in the derivatives segment were stagnant, and on the NSE the segment recorded a turnover of Rs 11,170 crore with around 2.75 lakh contracts being traded.

Index futures recorded a turnover of Rs 3,395 crore while the turnover in stock futures was of the order of Rs 6,193 crore.

The cumulative positions of foreign institutional investors as a percentage of total gross market position in the derivative segment as on March 16, 2005 was 27.42 per cent.

Nifty March series closed at a premium of around five points to the spot Nifty closing value. Due to the pressure in the cash market, which saw a bout of volatility in the last one hour of trading, the basis turned positive, dealers said.

Nifty futures also saw the open interest going up by around 15 lakh shares, though there was some decrease in the open interest of Nifty puts at 2100 levels.

In the futures segment, the most active contracts were those of Tata Steel, Andhra Bank, SBI, Satyam and ACC among others. Futures contracts which saw an addition in the open interest were those of Reliance, Union Bank, GAIL Ltd, Satyam among others. At the end of the trading session, Tisco's open interest was 2.65 crore shares, followed by Andhra Bank with around 85 lakh shares, and Reliance with 1.5 crore shares.

Meanwhile, according to data from the Sebi web-site on Wednesday, FIIs had sold Rs 88 crore in the derivatives segment. Dealers said that they were selling the index and stock futures and hedging by buying index options.