Operators know how to outsmart the watchdog. That was proved once again on Wednesday after two instances pointed out by market players indicate that insiders had prior knowledge of Sebi?s late-night move to propose restrictions on P-notes.
To start with, foreign institutional investors (FIIs), who were net buyers in the cash segment, turned net sellers in index futures on Tuesday. Even in the cash segment they slowed purchases, as they were net buyers to the tune of only Rs 1,154 crore. On the other hand, they sold index futures in excess of Rs 2,000 crore on Tuesday. They also hiked their exposure in individual stock futures.
Market participants also pointed to how when trading in the cash market was halted for an hour after the circuit-breaker was applied, trading in the derivatives segment was still on for the next three to four minutes and a big basket sale in Nifty futures at 5,250 took place where around 42.50 lakh shares were off-loaded.
Market players expressed surprise that such a big basket sale could go through.
The derivatives segment of the NSE witnessed a huge turnover on Wednesday. The total turnover in the F&O segment was Rs 98,398 crore with index futures contributing Rs 34,093 crore, while stock futures contributed Rs 50,639 crore. In the options segment, index options contributed Rs 10,956 crore while stock options worth Rs 2,708 crore were traded.
