No short positions on lack of cues

F&O OUTLOOK

The markets opened with uncertainty, hovering around yesterday’s close and then dipped into the red due to selling pressure, which persisted throughout the day. The final hour saw some recovery with the benchmark Sensex finally closing at 13,457 (down 145 points), while Nifty ended the day at 4,111 (down 51 points).

The Nifty October futures were trading at a premium of around 30-40 points to the spot for the major part of the session. The September series expiry saw lower than average rollovers, with Nifty rollovers at 60 per cent and market wide at 76 per cent.

Rollovers in the Nifty October series were at a premium of 33 points, indicating that derivatives players have not rolled over their short positions. The Nifty October futures rollover were at 27.07 million compared to 30.07 million shares in September futures a month ago.

The absence of short positions may not augur well for the market as we may not find short covering if there is a sharp decline in the markets.

According to derivatives and equity analyst Siddhartha Bhamre of Angel Broking, the low rollovers in the Nifty futures indicate that derivatives players have not carried forward their short positions in the absence of any cues. The market has been rangebound with the Nifty trading in the range of 3800 to 4300. Any positive news can take the index to 4300 levels and on a negative bias it could decline to 3800.

Marketwide rollovers sustained their momentum on the last day of September expiry, with 76 per cent positions getting rolled as against 57 per cent on the previous trading session. However, these rollovers are below the average 79.2 rollovers seen in previous expiries. The marketwide OI in index and stocks futures valued at Rs 46,132 crore compared to Rs 34,749 crore same time last month.