Despite SEBI’s desire to have more trades in the cash segment, NSE derivatives on Thursday registered record volumes, hitting ₹15-lakh crore. This was mainly on account of index options, which also saw a record turnover of ₹12.55-lakh crore.
In a recent report, SEBI had expressed concern over the equity derivatives turnover, which is a whopping 15 times the cash market volumes as against the global trading pattern of around five times.
In the cash segment, the NSE recorded a turnover of ₹38,255 crore.
The rollover of Nifty-50 open positions to October futures was 69 per cent, which is lower than the three-month average of 70 per cent. However, the rollover of Nifty Bank’s October futures was just 64 per cent (71 per cent). According to analysts, Thursday being the settlement day for the September series, a lot of traders added options ahead of the result season.
On Thursday, foreign institutional investors bought ₹2,809.55 crore worth of index options even as they sold ₹2,803-crore worth of contracts on index futures. In the cash segment, they sold shares worth ₹5,328.46 crore.
According to Ramesh Chordia, a Chennai-based analyst, expecting weak results, especially from the banking space, FIIs have added more index (bank) options, as a hedge to their cash holdings.”
Bye-bye P-NotesIt seems, foreign portfolio investors have bid adieu to participatory notes (P-Notes), perceived as a ‘hot money instrument’. From around ₹47,000 crore in June, foreign portfolio investors have cut down their P-Note position in the equity derivative segment to zero.