The Hindu Business Line : FIIs turn heavy buyer in index futures

Chennai, July 17 Turnover remained firm around Rs 46,300.96 crore against Wednesday’s turnover of Rs 45,738.28 crore. The Nifty July future, which commanded a discount of 13.35 points on Wednesday, widened to 21.55 points mainly on account of unwinding of long positions.

The Nifty July future ended the day at 3925.65 and the August future at 3903.45 against the spot Nifty close of 3947.2.

Among the options, Nifty 4000 and 3900 calls and 3800 put were the most active. While the 4000-call saw a sharp drop of 9.78 per cent or 29 lakh shares in open interest, the 3900 call added about 1.07 lakh shares in open interest. On the other hand, the Nifty 3800-put added about 23.21 lakh shares in open interest. This indicates that the Nifty might hover between 3800-4000 points.

India VIX or NSE Volatility Index jumped 13.6 per cent to 35.34 from Wednesday’s close of 31.10. This indicates a negative bias for the Nifty, as it measures the immediate expected volatility of the market.

Stock futures

Reliance Industries was the active counter followed by Reliance Petroleum, Ranbaxy Industries and Tata Steel.

Larsen & Toubro July future shed about 1.08 lakh shares in open interest and closed the day at 2433 against the spot close of 2442.95. Cost-of-carry also remained negative. All these factors present a negative outlook for the stock.

Ranbaxy July future shed about 6.06 per cent in open interest positions and closed at 453.15 against the spot close of 452.5. This indicates that lot of short positions were squared-off.

Reliance Industries witnessed a drop of 5 per cent in open interest positions. The July future ended at 2021.4 against the spot close of 2018.55.

Reliance Petroleum also shed open interest and ended at 150.6 against the spot close of 150.65.

DLF and SBI continued to rule in deep discount.

FII activity

Foreign institutional investors turned net buyers to the tune of Rs 2,598 crore in the F&O segment on Thursday. They were particularly heavy buyers (about Rs 2,433 crore) in index futures.