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K.S. Badri Narayanan

THE equities, which began the week on a promising note, could not sustain the gains and ended the three-day trading week in a negative territory. The NSE S&P CNX Nifty closed the week at 940.70 as against the previous week's close of 949.80.

The shortened week also had its impact on the derivative segment on the NSE. The average turnover at the derivative segment fell to about Rs 2,241 crore as against the previous week's average turnover of about Rs 3,040 crore, signalling investors' lacklustre interest.

Index futures: The April futures ended the week at 941.05, slightly lower than the spot Nifty close. With only four days left for expiry, open interest positions slipped to 16,963 contracts from the last week open interest position of 17,134 contracts. However, the May Nifty futures and the June Nifty futures ended the week in premium to the underlying close. With the May futures turning near-month contracts next week, open interests jumped to 3,246 contracts (2,109 contracts last week). The June contracts also evinced better attention with open interest jumping to 229 contracts (141 contracts).

It may be mentioned here that last weekend all these index futures were quoting at a huge premium of over 10 points to the underlying spot.

Index options: The April 970-strike on the Nifty was the most actively traded contract followed by the April 950-strike, the April 960-strike and the April 940-strike among call options. Among the puts, the April 950-strike was the top traded contract; the April 960-strike, the April 940-strike and the April 970-strike were also actively traded. The put-call ratio for April Nifty options stood at 0.50.

The deep out-of-the money (OTM) April 970 calls closed the week at Rs 1.50 as against last Friday's close of Rs 11.90. Though open interest position improved to 676 contracts compared to last weekend's 552 contracts, in the last two trading sessions it was declining, indicating investors were squaring up ahead of the expiry week.

The April 950 calls (also OTM) closed the week sharply lower at Rs 5.50 (Rs 21); open interest, however, sharply jumped to 469 contracts from last weekend's 65 contracts.

The in-the-money (ITM) April 950-puts on the Nifty ended the week higher at Rs 14.40 (Rs 11.40); open interest improved from 88 contracts (last weekend) to 281 contracts.(It may be noted here that the 950 strikes came into existence only last week as the Nifty slumped following the Infosys-effect.)

The April 960 puts (also ITM) closed at Rs 22 (Rs 16.10); open interest, however, declined to 278 contracts (306 contracts).

Stock futures: As usual, the near-month contracts (despite only a week for expiry) were the actively traded ones. Satyam Computer dominated the trading activity followed by Infosys, Wipro, Reliance, Digital GlobalSoft and Polaris Software Lab.

The Satyam counter will see some action this week as the company is scheduled to report Q4 financial performance on April 24, the same day on which the April contracts are expiring. The Satyam April futures closed the day at Rs 143.60 (Rs 145). The counter has been on a downtrend ever since Infosys announced its results. As Wipro's results also failed to enthuse sentiment, market interest now shifts to Satyam's numbers. Open interest in Satyam's April futures slumped to 3879 contracts (5161 contracts). However, open interest in May contracts jumped to 531 contracts (346 contracts), indicating investors were shifting positions to next month contracts.

Equity options: The April month contracts were the most active. Among the calls, the 150-strike and the 140-strike on

Satyam were the most active. Apart from Satyam, the 280-strike on Reliance, the 300-strike on HPCL and the 300-strike on SBI were also actively traded. Among the puts, the 150-strike on Satyam, the 280-strike on Reliance and the 280-strike on SBI were actively traded.

The April 150 calls on Satyam closed the week at Rs 3.95 (Rs 11.80); Open interest improved to 993 contracts (655 contracts). The 150 calls closed the week as OTM.

The OTM 280-puts on SBI ended the week at Rs 1.60 (Rs 2.20); open interest improved to 592 contracts (415 contracts).

Put/Call ratio: Bajaj Auto, BHEL and MTNL closed the week with high PCR, indicating weakness in these counters. ACC, SBI and Wipro ended the week with relatively lower PCR.

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