Derivatives: Striking A Divergent Note

The futures market was at variance with their underlying cash segment on Wednesday. While the cash market ended lower, Nifty futures actually closed at a premium for all the three months. Marketmen said near-month futures were trading at a discount to the underlying shares for the greater part of the day, indicating a bearish outlook.

However, towards close, there was a recovery. While there was a fall in August futures open interest, the September futures saw an increase.

Nifty futures volumes were of the order of Rs 156.71 crore with 7,930 contracts being traded. There were 1,085 Nifty options contracts traded at a notional value of Rs 21.55 crore.

 

The highest volumes were in the Nifty August call at 990. Other calls which were among the top traded were at strikes of 980, 1,000 and 970. In puts, the highest volume with 92 contracts was in the August put at 970.

Satyam Computer futures were the most traded in individual futures with 9264 contracts and Infosys Technologies came next with 5021 contracts. Though information technology stocks rallied in the underlying futures in Satyam, Infosys and Digital closed at a discount.

Futures of other stocks such as Tata Steel, HPCL, BPCL and Sterlite Optics, however, ended at a premium.

Satyam was again the star in the options segment and the August call at 220 was the most traded with 831 contracts. Infosys, Digital and Reliance were the other stock options in demand. Out of 30 securities, options on 26 underlying securities got traded. The total number of contracts traded was 9,520 with a notional value of Rs 250.71 crore.