MUMBAI: Investors have carried forward most of their short positions following the expiry of January derivative series suggesting that the market sentiments remain bearish for the near term. Derivatives experts said that institutional investors especially the foreign portfolio investors (FPI’s) have created huge short positions in Nifty futures during the last two trading session.
“I am not saying that the markets are going to see a steep fall. But looking at the derivatives positions, it seems that institutional investors are bearish on the markets at the moment,” said Siddarth Bhamre, head of equity derivatives at Angel Broking. According to him, investors who were holding long (buy) positions had already squared-off their positions and exited the market. “We didn’t see much roll-over in the stock of HDFC Bank. The stock of HDFC Bank was the most stable stock in the Nifty and Bank Nifty basket and was also providing the much-needed support to the index.
The lower roll-over positions in HDFC stock is not a positive sign for the market,” added Mr Bhamre. “Traders have carried forward their short position in the Bank Nifty futures contract, which indicates that the bank stocks are expected to remain under pressure in the coming days. We are not expecting a sharp bounce back in the market as bank stocks are having a higher weightage in the index,” said Amit Gupta, head of derivatives at ICICI Securities.
On Thursday, the equity markets ended the day with marginal losses. While the Sensex dropped 22.82 points or 0.09 per cent to close at 24,469.57, the broader 50-share Nifty closed at 7,424.65, losing 13.10 points or 0.18 per cent.
NSE sees 6 per cent growth in retail investors:
The NSE on Thursday said that the exchange has witnessed a six per cent increase in active participation from retail investors in 2015 with cities such as Rajkot and Bengaluru showing significant growth. According to the NSE, there were 46 lakh active clients in 2015 in the cash market segment and all of them traded at least once. “Majority of this additional participation has come from the western region of the country. Besides conventional places, data associated with Bengaluru and Rajkot have shown significant growth,” it said.
