Volumes up marginally

DERIVATIVES REPORT

Volumes improved marginally in the derivatives segment and on the NSE's futures and options segment the turnover was at Rs 7,302 crore with over three lakh contracts being traded.

Turnover in index futures was at Rs 2,272 crore while the turnover in stock futures was at Rs 3,996 crore. The total open interest was close to 39 crore shares.

In the futures segment, the most active contracts were those of Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Infosys Technologies, State Bank of India and Reliance Industries among others. The Nifty April futures closed at 2019.15, a discount to the spot Nifty closing value of 2025.45 at close.

The cumulative position of foreign institutional investors as a percentage of total gross market position in the derivative segment as on April 12, 2005 was 31.39 per cent. FII activity in derivatives was hardly significant as their buy and sell positions virtually cancelled each other.

As a strategy, some of the market participants are going long on Nifty futures, which are still trading at a considerable discount to the spot value. In fact, a substantial number of stocks futures are trading at a discount to their spot prices and arbitrageurs are cashing in on this opportunity in the markets.

However, dealers said that Infosys results to be declared on Thursday will set the tone for the market in the next one month.