The market witnessed healthy rollovers in the derivatives segment for the near-month September to October contracts on Thursday. Rollovers in Nifty index futures contracts fell to 70% levels, 6% lower than the previous month.

The rollover has been on the higher side both for stocks and index (Nifty) futures in terms of absolute open interest. The market has seen more of long rollovers. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have been squaring off long index positions.

?In the last 6-7 sessions, FIIs have squared off Rs 5,000 crore index futures, bringing down the open interest by 18-20%. This indicates they are not forming fresh positions in index futures but are still active in stock futures,? said Siddarth Bhamre, head ?derivatives, Angel Broking.

Total traded turnover on exchanges (NSE cash and F&O plus BSE cash) stood at Rs 2.36 lakh crore. The Nifty derivatives turnover was at Rs 2.11 lakh crore, the highest value ever. ?This suggests that the institutional participation in the market is near all-time high even though the retail participation is muted,? said Savio Shetty, institutional derivatives analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher.

Market participants said the rollovers were higher than the three-month average for most sectors. In particular, sectors such as auto, telecom and sugar saw robust rollovers.

Among individual Nifty 50 stocks, ADAG scrips such as Reliance Infra, Reliance Power and Reliance Capital saw a high rollover. ?Reliance Capital and Reliance Power has seen heightened buying interest at lower levels,? Shetty said. Videocon Industries, Bharat Forge, India Cement, Orchid Chemicals, Yes Bank and ICICI Bank saw high rollover. Among heavyweights, SBI, TCS, Gail, ONGC and HDFC Bank saw a below average rollover. Experts believe the market will consolidate. ?I don?t think it will make a big directional move either way,? Shetty said. ?The Nifty auctions open interest have seen maximum calls and puts at the psychological 6,000 level. At the most, the market will move 5% either ways from these levels.?

According to Bhamre, the general mood is cautious for the October series and investors are prepared to pay a higher premium. He reiterated that October would be a volatile month with a limited upside but no clear indication of a downside.