The rally on the bourses on Wednesday was accompanied with the commensurate rise in the trading volume and the turnover on both the segments of the stock exchange. Both the leading bourses, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) saw at least 50% rise in turnover and the number of shares traded. The combined cash volume on BSE-NSE jumped to 128.64 crore shares against 80.56 crore shares traded in the previous session. Similarly, the turnover surged to Rs 27,885.10 crore from the earlier level of Rs 18,631.27 crore on Tuesday.
The NSE’s derivatives segment also witnessed hectic activities. The number of shares traded gained 26% from 76.60 crore shares to 109.62 crore shares, while the turnover on the other hand saw a sharp jump of 27% to Rs 68,101 crore from Rs 54,101 crore.
However, the level of volume and turnover we saw on Wednesday in the cash segment was last seen on November 16, 2007, when the Sensex ended at 19,698.36 points. Following the sharp sell-off in the market post January, this level of activity was never witnessed once by the market in last six months, dealers said.
Marketmen attribute the sudden spurt in the activities to short covering and emergence of fresh buying. Dealers said, with the political scene becoming more clearer, there was a scrambling for covering the short position by bear players. Also, the falling crude prices have forced them to act fast. Secondly, markets testing the bottoms and stage being set for the short term relief rally to sustain, there was some fresh buying seen and hence the spurt in volume and turnover was witnessed, dealers explained.