Brokers attributed the sharp fall in badla rates to massive purchases by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) during the settlement ended on Friday last. FIIs' net investment during the first five days of the New Year, which coincided with the new settlement from Monday January 1, stood around Rs 1,000 crore. All these purchases will be marked for delivery was also evident from the drop in outstanding figure, which stood at Rs 2,981.87 crore from last week's amount of Rs 2,986.40 crore, they added.

The salient feature of Saturday's badla session was that HDFC, HLL, ICICI Bank and ITC stock attracted backwardation charges. HDFC attracted backwardation charge of Rs 0.81, HLL attracted Rs 0.79, ICICI Bank attracted backwardation charge of Rs 2.05 and ITC was traded for undha badla of Rs 0.10. Other prominent stocks which were traded during Saturday's badla session and their weighted average was: RIL Rs 0.52, Satyam Computers Rs 0.17, Silverline Technologies Rs 0.43, Pentamedia Graphics Rs 0.66, SSI Rs 3.27, L&T Rs 0.46, MTNL Rs 0.29, Nestle Rs 1.12, Novartis Rs 1.15, Ranbaxy Laborateries Rs 0.29, Global Tele Rs 1.89, HFCL Rs 3.08, Infosys Technologies Rs 14.09, ACC Rs 0.36, SBI Rs 0.32, Tata Engg Rs 0.22, Tata Steel Rs 0.28, Wipro Rs 1.04 and Zee Telefilms Rs 0.60.