FUTURES & OPTIONS

The derivative segment witnessed brisk and volatile trading during settlement week.

Rollover data gives evidence of fresh longs; Nifty & Bank Nifty rollover stood at 74 per cent and 78 per cent as against 64 per cent and 72 per cent.

Marketwide rollover stood at 90 per cent vs 84 per cent, which was higher in terms of percentage and total open interest visa-vis last month as well as the average of the last three months.

In the options segment, 11,500-strike call has the highest open interest and 11,000-strike put has the highest open interest.

Nifty is on its way towards its potential nearterm target of 11,40011,450 levels. It is interesting to observe that from frontline counters TCS, Infosys and Kotak Bank have gained 43.9 per cent, 33.3 per cent and 29.9 per cent while Tata Motors, Vedanta and Bharti Airtel have fallen 37.9 per cent, 33.3 per cent and 31.2 per cent respectively till date.

The next leg of rally is likely to be led by the banking space. Barring tech sector, nearly all sectoral indices notched impressive gains. Stocks from Metals, FMCG and Realty sectors logged impressive gains.

Bank Nifty closed above the 27,400-levels confirming a fresh breakout. Punters expect Bank Nifty to further rally towards 28,500-levels in near-term.

Results of Canara Bank were better than expectations and industry players are expecting many more surprises from PSBs in next few months. Use declines to accumulate SBI, BOB, Canara Bank and PNB. Also looking good are Ajanta Pharma, Escorts, ITC, India Cements, Muthoot Finance, Motherson Sumi, Raymond, Titan and V Guard.

(C. Kutumba Rao is an avid follower of stock markets. This newspaper is not liable for decisions made on the basis of this column. Views expressed in the article are personal views of the writer.)