Profit-Taking Pulls Down Derivatives

Profit-booking and lack of positives pulled down the derivatives market as well. The NSE Nifty futures ended lower for the second day, about 1 per cent below its previous close. It closed 4.50 points down at 1084.40 against S&P CNX Nifty of 1082.85, down by 9.95 points.

There was a drop in volumes in all the Nifty futures but open interest in the June contract increased. June Nifty futures registered a volume of 4728 contracts and open interest of 5046 contracts. Nifty July futures closed lower by 5.40 points at 1089.05 amid a volume of 200 contracts and 579 contracts of open interest. August Nifty futures closed lower by 6.10 points at 1092 amid a volume of 10 contracts and open interest of 103 contracts.

There was a drop in volumes in the NSE Nifty options. Premiums also declined over yesterday. The highest volumes were seen in the Nifty June call at 1100 in which 97 contracts were traded. Other calls in demand were the June call at 1080, 1060 and 1120. Among puts the June put at 1080 saw 51 contracts traded other puts were the June put at 1060 and 1040.

Only the near month June contract managed to attract trades in the BSE Sensex futures. There was a drop in volumes in the contract while open interest inched up marginally. The futures ended at a premium to the underlying.

Among stock options the Satyam June call at 240 generated trades of 660 contracts and topped the list. Its put at the same strike traded 354 contracts. Other counters in demand were the Telco June call at 155 and 150. Cement and engineering major L&T also attracted attention ahead of its results. Its June call at 180 with 350 contracts made it to the top list.

In stock futures also Satyam continues to be the most fancied counter. Other stocks in the top list include Telco, Digital, Infosys, Reliance, HPCL and BPCL.