The Hindu Business Line : Satyam back in focus

TRADING activity picked up in the derivative segment on Tuesday ahead of Thursday, the settlement day for May series, on the NSE. Turnover on Tuesday was Rs 10,721 crore against Monday's figure of Rs 9,201 crore with the Index series accounting for nearly half of the total traded volumes.

Index futures: It was a volatile day for the market; the NSE S&P CNX Nifty, which remained in the negative territory in most part of the day, swung violently between 1566.40 and 1621.45 points before settling at 1606.70, a drop of 0.13 per cent over the previous close.

The near month Nifty May contracts closed at 1601.40, still at a discount of 5.30 points. The gap has narrowed down as only two days are left for the expiry of May contracts. Generally, the future price will converge towards the spot rate when the contract approaches expiry. Open interest positions for May contracts slipped by over 12 per cent to 31,042 contracts.

The discount between the spot and futures was bigger in the case of June month contracts. The June Nifty futures closed the day at 1562, a whopping discount of 31.75 points. Open interest improved by over 28 per cent to 32,648 contracts.

Stock futures: The most active contracts in this segment were Reliance Industries, Satyam Computer, Tata Steel, Tata Motors and SBI.

With the infotech stocks getting market attention of late, contracts on Satyam Computer were back in focus. Satyam May futures closed at Rs 322.65 against the spot close of Rs 322.55.

Open interest slipped over 22 per cent to 1,714 contracts. However, the Satyam June contracts closed the day with a marginal premium at Rs 323.60 while open interest positions surged by over 130 per cent to 1,172 contracts.

FIIs data: Foreign institutional investors were net buyers to the tune of Rs 105.48 crore on Monday. They have open interest positions worth Rs 1,626 crore, up from the previous day's figure of Rs 1,490.88 crore, indicating large-scale shifting of positions from May month contracts to June series by FIIs.