The Nifty 50 index moved within an even narrower 41-point range on Wednesday, unable to yet again break out of the 8,600-8,700 band. The benchmark has been locked in this range for over 2 weeks. Yesterday, it gained 0.2 percent for the day and also saw an addition of just 0.2 percent in open interest across all futures contracts.
Above Average Rollovers
Traders rolled over 71 percent of their August contracts, which was much higher than the 56 percent average of the previous three expiries with 1 day left before the monthly contracts end.
Nifty Bank, which declined marginally yesterday, saw a reduction in open interest of 2.6 percent in all futures contracts.
FIIs Continue to Sell Index Futures
Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold index futures for the third straight day. Contracts worth Rs 254 crore were sold on net basis, even as the open interest in this category increased by 11,410 contracts. FIIs added 7,890 contracts towards short positions on net basis against 3,520 net long positions.
Volatility Disappears in Expiry Week
With one session left for expiration of August contracts, it was an uncharacteristically quiet day of trade—void of volatility. The India Volatility Index (VIX), which declined by 2.95 percent on Wednesday, ended at a 17-month low of 13.48 on a closing basis.
The India VIX hit an intra-day low of 12.39, which was the lowest since December 28, 2015.
Maximum open interest continued to remain in 8,800 Call (over 66 lakh shares) and 8,400 Put (over 60 lakh shares), which indicates a firm range for the expiration of August contracts.
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