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K.S. Badrinarayanan

TRADING activity at the derivative segment on the National Stock Exchange improved this week with the average daily turnover registering about Rs 2,223 crore as against the previous week average daily turnover of Rs 1,802 crore.

Index futures: As the spot Nifty moved in a narrow range (between a high of 956.65 and a low of 935.80) during the week, the Nifty futures witnessed a lacklustre activity.

Trading volume in Nifty May futures declined gradually to 10,097 contracts on Friday as against Monday's volume of 13,226 contracts except on Thursday, which witnessed a higher volume of 15,344 contracts.

The May futures closed the week negative at 934.65 as against the previous week's close of 938.05. The May futures also ended the week in discount to the spot close of 937.85. Open interest position slipped to 17,737 contracts from last weekend position of 17,835 contracts.

The June Nifty futures closed at 934.60 and the July futures at 935.95 with improved open interest positions.

Stock futures: The near-month contracts were the most active. The Digital May futures topped the list with active trading ahead of the company's Q4 financial performance announcement on Monday. Volumes in Digital futures zoomed to 6,753 contracts from the last weekend volumes of 2070 contracts. Open interest position has seen a steady build up since April 17; the open position was only 52 contracts on April 17, which currently stands at 1579 contracts; however, the counter witnessed a huge cover up of about 605 contracts on last Thursday. The Digital counter has seen a run-up in price also on expectation that the company might announce a merger plan with Hewlett Packard.

The contract witnessed a volatile trend and moved between a high of Rs 594.70 and a low of Rs 518.05 price-wise before settling lower at Rs 522.25 as against the previous week's close of Rs 535.10. However, the Digital futures closed the week in premium to the underlying stock close of Rs 521.70.

Apart from Digital, contracts such as Gujarat Ambuja Cement, HPCL, Ranbaxy, Tata Tea and Cipla also witnessed heightened activity compared to last week.

Index options: The May 930 and the 940 strikes (both calls and puts) witnessed active trading during the week. The 940 calls closed the week at Rs 9.20 (Rs 13.20) with open interest improving to 1698 contracts (1284 contracts).

The 930 puts also closed the week lower at Rs 10.55 (Rs 15.50); open interest jumped to 824 contracts (435 contracts).

Equity options: Digital was the most active among options (both puts and calls) too. Contracts on Infosys, Wipro, MTNL, HPCL and SBI were also actively traded as compared to last week.

Among the calls, The May 300, 290 and the 310 strikes on SBI, the May 2800 strike on Infosys, the May 110-strike on MTNL witnessed heightened activity.

The out-of-the money (OTM) May 300 calls on SBI closed the week at Rs 2.60 as against previous week close of Rs 2.25. Open interest shot up to 910 contracts from last Friday's position of 694 contracts. The underlying equity closed the week at Rs 285.45.

Put options on tech counters were active during the week. Among them, the May 2950 and the 2900-strikes on Infosys, the May 870-strike on Wipro, the May 520, 500 and the 480-strikes on Digital, the May 300-strike on Mastek witnessed heightened activity.

The 870-strike on Wipro (OTM) ended the week on negative note at Rs 22.10 (Rs 39), after touching low of Rs 9 during intra-week. Open interest jumped to 56 contracts from last week's 35 contracts in the contract. The underlying Wipro closed the week at Rs 890.05.

Put-Call ratio: The open interest PCR was higher on contracts such as Bharat Electronics, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Polaris Software, Hero Honda, Digital and HDFC while it was lower on Reliance, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel and HCL Technologies.

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