Volumes up

DERIVATIVES REPORT

Volumes in the derivatives segment surged up with the turnover on the National Stock Exchange being at Rs 9,272.41 crore and 3.16 lakh contracts being traded.

Index futures clocked a turnover of Rs 3,305 crore and stock futures recorded a turnover of Rs 4.925 crore.

FIIs's exposure to the derivatives segment remained more or less stagnant with the cumulative FII positions as a percentage of total gross market position in the derivative segment as on August 20, 2004 at 17.73 per cent.

In fact according to Sebi figures, FIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 25 crore on Friday and dealers said that they had rolled over around 17 per cent of their outstanding positions.

The rise in volumes can be attributed to the rollover to the next month series. Dealers said that close to 30 per cent of the positions have been rolled over to the next month. Expiry of the August futures is on Thursday next.

In the futures segment the most active contracts were those of Tata Steel, Reliance, Tata Motors, Satyam and Infosys. In the options segment the most active calls were Satyam at a strike price of 340, Tata Steel at 260 and 250, Reliance at 460 and Tata Motors at a strike of 380 and the most active puts were Tata Steel at 260, Satyam at 340 and 330 , and Reliance at 460 and 450. The Nifty September futures series ended at a discount of around seven points to the spot Nifty.

There was an addition of 3 lakh shares in open interest positions. There was considerable rollover of positions in individual stock futures. For instance Tata Steel saw a rollover of 30 per cent, Reliance 23 per cent and Infosys 24 per cent among others. There was also an increase in the open interests of Satyam, Tata Motors, Reliance among others.

Dealers said that the markets would be range-bound which is attested to the significantly high proportion of calls being written. The put-call ratio was 0.6:1, one indication that the market still has some upsides left. The cost of carry is also ranging between 6 to 12 per cent.