Date:05/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/08/05/stories/2008080551721500.htm

Back SBI sheds open interest, ends in discount

Our Bureau

Chennai, Aug. 4 Trading volumes declined on Monday to Rs 43,364.62 crore against Friday’s turnover of Rs 48,778.01 crore.

The premium of Nifty August future narrowed down to about 10 points against Friday’s premium of about 20 points, mainly on account of creation of fresh short positions particularly during the second-half of Monday’s trading. Among the Nifty options, 4500 and 4600 calls and 4300 puts were the most active. Both the calls saw sharp accumulation in open interest positions, indicating that the Nifty might see strong resistance at those levels. On the other hand, the Nifty 4300 put saw only a marginal increase in open interest positions, indicating that some traders accumulated puts expecting downtrend.

Nifty VIX

India VIX or NSE volatility index jumped to 40.24 points from Friday’s close of 38.49. As VIX is supposed to be an indicator of fear, it seems that a lot of people are sceptical about the current rally and accumulated puts.

Stock futures

Reliance Industries was the most active counter followed by RNRL, Reliance Petroleum, Essar Oil, Reliance Capital and Tata Steel.

Most of the actively traded counter saw sell side order (from unmatched bid and ask order book) almost double than the buy side. This suggests that lot of traders were willing to book profits or sell at higher levels. This is an another indicator that market could see a tough resistance at 4500 level.

The August future contracts of Reliance Industries, Essar Oil, Shree Renuka Sugars and Ranbaxy accumulated open interest positions and also ended in premium with respect to their spot price closes.

However, SBI closed at 1486.7 against the spot close of 1510.5. It also shed open interest positions, indicating negative bias for the counter.

Ranbaxy was the other counter ended in discount at 514.35 against the spot close of 522.65.