Rival bets set stage for rocky start to '24

Bullish institutions and bearish retail investors roll over bets to New Year

- Ram Sahgal

The battle of sentiment between the client category (comprising high networth and retail investors), and institutional investors has spilled over to the new year. The former has taken a bearish stance on index futures, and the latter a bullish one, a development likely to make markets choppy after a secular rally last month.

On December 29, the first day of the January series, the combined cumulative net short Nifty and Bank Nifty futures (index) contracts held by clients and proprietary traders stood at 90,487. These contracts have been purchased by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and domestic institutional investors (DIIS), with the FPIs accounting for most buys on a net basis, National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) data shows.

The clients' and proprietary traders' short positions have been rolled over from the previous month, while FPIs have rolled over long bets and added fresh ones. DIIs have also rolled over their bullish bets, albeit in smaller numbers than FPIs.