August Futures Spiral Up

The National Stock Exchange Nifty futures tracked the cash market and ended higher today. All the three contracts finished at a substantial premium to the spot index.

Nifty August futures gained about 5.60 points at 959 while S&P CNX Nifty witnessed a loss of 1.75 at 958.90.

The big premium and the rising cost of carry implied that the market is optimistic of a revival, dealers said.

Volumes nearly doubled in the August contract to 9518 contracts against 5901. Nifty August futures saw an increase of 9.3 per cent in open interest to 10,603 contracts. The put-call ratio declined to 0.22 as against previous day's 0.38 following the cash market bounceback.

Calls dominated the trading and activity shifted to the ATM calls. August strikes at 960, 980 and 950 were the top traded contracts. August put option at 950 traded 171 contracts.

Technology majors Satyam and Infosys pulled up sharply. Satyam was the top traded counter. Reliance and Digital were also the among the active stocks. Satyam and Digital finished at a discount to the cash market.

In stock options again, Satyam topped the most traded paper. With the put/call ratio at a high of 1.12 in Satyam, one can expect a correction in the ratio. Reliance was also active.