The Hindu Business Line : Turnover tumbles further in F&O

TURNOVER further dropped in the futures & options segment (F&O) on the NSE on Wednesday. The segment recorded a turnover of Rs 2142.57 crore as against Tuesday's turnover of Rs 2415 crore and much lower when compared to last Friday's turnover of Rs 3013.45 crore.

Index futures: Once again April futures dominated with 12,643 contracts being traded. The April futures ended the day marginally discounted at 958 to the spot Nifty close of 958.55. However, the May and the June futures ended the day in premium at 961.40 and 962.40 respectively.

Open interest in April futures slipped by over 5 per cent to 16155 contracts as only a few days are left for expiry. Open interest, however, jumped by over 25 per cent each in May and June futures to 2597.5 contracts and to 180 contracts respectively.

Stock futures: The April contracts of Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computer, Wipro, Hindustan Lever, Reliance and Digital were the top traded counters. Wipro, which is scheduled to announce its Q4 result on Thursday, registered 5246 contracts. The Wipro April futures ended at Rs 958.75 as against the Tuesday's close of (Rs 971.75) and in premium to the underlying spot close of Rs 957.10. Open interest improved 8.56 per cent to 1751 contracts.

Hindustan Lever Ltd, which declared Q1 results, saw open interest slipping by over 16 per cent to 2168 contracts. In fact, open interest position was building up in the counter constantly since March 24 when the position was 1085 contracts to the Tuesday's level of 2583 contracts. The HLL April futures closed the day higher at Rs 147.85 (Rs 141.65). The Hindustan Lever stock closed at Rs 147.70.

Index options: The April 960 and the 970 calls on Nifty were the most actively traded counters with 334 contracts and 319 contracts respectively. Among puts, the April 950 puts with 211 contracts and the April 960 puts with 207 contracts were the most active contracts.

The April 960 calls ended the day marginally lower at Rs 11.10 (Rs 11.20). Open interest improved by over 8 per cent to 458 contracts. The 970 calls also ended the day weak at Rs 6.75 (Rs 7.05). Open interest slipped to 701 contracts, as the calls are out-of-the money (OTM).

Interestingly, the Nifty 950 puts also closed the day lower at Rs 8.60 (Rs 12.60) with open interest jumping over 50 per cent to 326 contracts. The Nifty 960 puts also ended the day in negative territory at Rs 13.05 (Rs 16.70). Open interest improved by over 8 per cent to 307 contracts.

Equity options: Among calls, the April 3000 strike on Infosys (with 707 contracts), the April 160 strike (1068 contracts) and the April 150 strike on Satyam (1063 contracts), the April 150 strike on Hindustan Lever (509 contracts) and the April 300 strike on HPCL (265 contracts) were the most active.

The April 150 strike on Satyam (1357 contracts), the 2800 strike on Infosys (519 contracts) the 140-strike on Hindustan Lever (684 contracts), the 280 strike on Reliance (536 contracts) and the 280 strike on SBI (280 contracts) were the most active among put options.

The Satyam 160 calls closed the day higher at Rs 5.55 (Rs 4.30) with open interest improving to 64 contracts. On the other hand, the 150 puts on Satyam ended the day lower at Rs 5.55 (Rs 8.75). Open interest jumped over 75 per cent to 983 contracts.

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