Nifty premium at 33 points

F&O OUTLOOK

The Nifty August futures contract ended at a premium of 33 points on a provisional basis and the open interest rose 9.2 per cent to 34.98 million, data on National Stock Exchange web site showed.

The market ended off its 2 per cent intra-day lows on account of short covering. The Nifty ended at 4368.25, down 24.80 points, or 0.6 per cent after moving between 4316.55 and 4393.70.

The August contract ended at 4401.10, down 8.15 points, or 0.2 per cent, September contract closed at 4399.00, down 5.10 points or 0.1 per cent and the October contract ended at 4396.00, down 3.15 points, or 0.1 per cent.

“Although there was profit booking intra-day, short-covering helped the market recover quite a bit towards the end. The Nifty (futures) actually ended near its day’s high,” said Anand Kuchelan, derivatives analyst at PINC Research. Dealers also attributed the recovery to bargain buying in select stocks.

Reliance Petroleum futures ended at a Rs 2 premium due to short covering.

In the cash segment, the shares ended at Rs 159.45, up nearly 2 per cent.

Dealers expect the market to remain range-bound in coming sessions due to lack of definite triggers. “There is nothing to speculate on and the Nifty (futures) is seen in the range of 4400-4600,” Kuchelan said.

The cumulative foreign institutional investor positions, as percentage of total gross market positions in the derivatives segment, were 34.91 per cent on Monday.

The August contracts of Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum, Shree Renuka Sugars, Reliance Capital, Reliance Communications, SBI, ICICI Bank and Tata Steel were the most actively traded.