Derivatives: Tracking The Cash Mart

The derivatives market tracked the cash segment and ended largely with gains at least for the middle and far month futures. The July and August Nifty futures ended at premium to the underlying cash segment, though the near-month future was at a marginal discount. The figures show that the open interest in all the three futures have risen. However, in line with the cash markets the volumes in the futures markets have also been dropping.

In the case of the Sensex futures, marketmen said trading was lacklustre and some activity was seen only in case of the near month future. Here the futures moved in line with the cash market and ended at a premium to the underlying cash market.

There was mixed sentiments in index options. The Nifty June call at 1060 saw the highest volumes with 160 contracts being traded. The put, which was also at the same strike price, saw 153 contracts being traded. Other toppers in this segment were the June call at 1080, 1070 and 1100. In the case of puts, there was some trading in the June puts 1040, 1070 and 1080.

The individual stock options and futures segment were rather along expected lines - Satyam stock futures was the most traded with 6692 contracts. The scrip future ended at a slight premium to the underlying cash market price.

The Infosys future closed at 3254 against the cash close of Rs 3245. The SBI counters attracted attention ahead of its results and ended at 243 a premium to its cash close of 242.40. MTNL, Reliance and Tata Engineering were the other counters in demand. In the stock options segment also Satyam maintained its position as the most traded counter. Its June call at 220 and put at the same strike were traded the most. Reliance, MTNL and SBI were the other stock options traded.