Nifty rollover at multi-year low

The rollover of Nifty futures contract stood at 56.1 %, lowest since 2015

A general restraint prevailed in the stock market on Thursday, with all eyes on GDP data for the June quarter slated for post-market hours. Both the Sensex and the Nifty closed positive for a consecutive session, aided by supporting the overseas trend. 

Since it was the last day for August derivatives contracts, speculators went about covering their short bets in the last lap, which kept the positivity going.

The Sensex settled higher by 84 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 31,730.5. The Nifty ended at 9,917.9, up 0.3 per cent. Realty, power, oil and gas took the front row, while health care, banking and metal ended in the negative.

Participants rolled over their futures and options contracts from August series to September, causing deep swings in the market. According to a Bloomberg report, the expiry of futures affected trading as contracts underpinning the Nifty 50 Index were rolled over, with lower prices suggesting investors paid less after the benchmark reached new record levels several times this year. 

As much as 54 per cent of contract positions were rolled over compared with the three-month average of 72 per cent. The cost of replacement was 32 basis points compared with the three-month mean of 44 basis points. 

The rollover of Nifty futures contract stood at 56.1 per cent, lowest since 2015. Market-wide rollovers stood at 83.4 per cent, in line with the previous three-month average. Bank Nifty rollovers, too, were in line with previous months at 67 per cent.

Derivative analysts said markets could remain range bound with negative bias.