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Our Bureau

Chennai, March 18

Turnover picked up slightly to Rs 47,532 crore – the highest so far in March. Thanks to creation of fresh long positions and squaring-off of short positions, the Nifty futures – both March and April contracts – ended in premium against the Nifty spot price. While the Nifty March future closed at 4548.85 and the April future at 4535.2, the Nifty spot closed the day at 4533.

With just only five days left for the expiry of March series, rollover of open positions picked up today itself, ahead of holidays (The market is closed on Thursday and Friday due to Id-E-Milad & Good Friday/Holi).

Among the options, Nifty 4600-call and 4700-call and Nifty 4500-puts remained active. While call options saw sharp addition in open interest positions, the 4500-put saw only a marginal increase.

Momentum counters such as RNRL, Essar Oil, JP Associates, Shree Renuka Sugars and DLF remained active. Apart from these counters, Reliance Industries, Reliance Capital, Reliance Petroleum, Reliance Energy and ICICI Bank also remained in the active zone.

Most of them ended in premium to their respective spot closes, indicating creation of fresh long positions.

Reliance Capital March future was the worst performer among them. It shed 6.52 per cent in value to end at 1062.55 but in premium to the spot close of 1060.15. It also added about 5.6 per cent in open interest positions.

DLF March future, on the other hand, gained 6.5 per cent to end at Rs 627.15 but in discount to the spot close of Rs 635.70. Open interest also declined 8.18 per cent, indicating traders have created fresh short positions.

Overseas investors turned net buyers to the tune of Rs 1,315.08 crore on Tuesday. Their net buying on index futures stood at Rs 1,017.39 crore, on stock futures at Rs 291.38 crore and on index options at Rs 8.13 crore. However, they remained net sellers of Rs 1.82 crore on stock options.

FIIs remained net sellers to the tune of Rs 1,011 crore, according to a provisional data provided by the exchanges, on Tuesday.

More Stories on : Derivatives Markets | On the hedge

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