Nifty April futures shine

DERIVATIVES REPORT

Equity derivatives market yesterday witnessed heightened activity in terms of volumes while it faced a decline in value. April Nifty futures declined to 1,860.55 points, registering a discount to the spot S&P CNX Nifty that fell 0.88 per cent to 1,864.20 points. Tisco emerged as the hottest futures contract after Nifty, followed by Satyam, SBI, Tata Motors, Infosys, Reliance, ONGC, Maruti and Gail.

In terms of open position, Gail clocked the highest 1,37,10,000 followed by Tisco at 1,28,73,600. However, Nifty April futures continued to attract highest trading interest with a volume of 1,25,512 contracts amid an open interest of 79,65,600.

Nifty futures added 11 lakh shares or 6 per cent in open interest with lower prices. Among banking stocks, Andhra Bank added 7 lakh shares or 12 per cent, Bank of Baroda added 1 lakh shares or 5 per cent and Syndicate Bank added 8 lakh shares or 19 per cent in open interest.

On the other hand, Canara Bank and Union Bank shed 4.5 lakh or 12 per cent and 4.75 lakh or 8 per cent in open interest, respectively.

In technology stocks, Infosys added a huge 80,000 shares or 15 per cent in open interest positions. The stock was down 2.61 per cent today. NIIT added 2 lakh or 14 per cent, Satyam Computer added 2 lakh shares or 5 per cent and Wipro added 43,000 or 11 per cent in open interest. Dr Reddy's added a huge 2.35 lakh shares or 50 per cent in open interest, while the stock was down 6 per cent.

Index futures saw a trading volume of Rs 4,741.27 crore arising out of 1,27,123 contracts and index options saw 8,842 contracts getting traded at a notional value of Rs 335.18 crore. The total turnover of the futures & options segment of the exchange was around Rs 12,644.11 crore.

All the stock futures on 52 underlying securities got traded. The total number of contracts traded was 215414 with a traded value of Rs 6893.09 crore. The top ten contracts contributed to around 61 per cent of the total traded volume in Futures on individual securities.

TISCO was the most active future contracts on individual securities traded today with 20062 contracts and SBI was the next most active futures contracts with 17017 contracts being traded.

Out of 52 securities, options on 47 underlying securities got traded. The total number of contracts traded was 20,342 with a notional value of Rs 674.57 crore. The top twenty contracts contributed to around 40 per cent of the total traded volume in options on individual securities.

Satyam was the most active option contracts on individual securities traded today with 2,962 contracts and Tisco was the next most active options contracts with 2,411 contracts being traded.