Nifty Futures Spiral Up

Nifty futures finished higher with both the June and July contracts ending at a substantial premium to the market.

There was a marginal rise in volumes in the near month and July contracts, along with volumes in August futures. Open interest in June futures also rose.

The Bombay Stock Exchange sensex futures too finished higher, though only the near month contract was traded.

Among index options the Nifty June put at 1060 with 218 contracts was the top traded index option. Other puts in the toppers' list were the June put at 1040 and 1050. Calls that generated interest were the June call at 1060 and 1080.

Satyam ended as the top traded counter in the derivatives market, as usual. It traded 5643 contracts worth Rs 160.79 crore. Nifty and Infosys were not far behind with volumes of Rs 112.46 crore and Rs 103.02 crore.

Tata Engineering and Tata Steel have caught the market's recent fancy. The Tata Engineering futures traded 1293 contracts worth Rs 60.36 crore, while the Tata Steel futures logged a volume of Rs 47.26 crore, on the back of 2051 contracts.

Dealers felt Tata Engineering's good FY02 numbers are responsible for the increased interest. Other active counters were HPCL, Reliance, Ranbaxy, Digital, and BPCL.