Futures investors wait for a sign

Press, 24 August 1988, Page 43

Futures investors wait for a sign

Futures markets meandered along yesterday on low volume. Dealers said there were no real indicators in the market to spark interest. “Because the market wasn’t going up this morning it just went down,” one dealer said. “And then when it had had enough of going down it went up again.” Dealers agreed that the release of details after the Government’s $3OO million stock tender on Friday may spark interest rate contracts. Investors are also building up towards the release of the September quarter consumers price index. The problem with both of these indicators was that they were not immediate and the market needed an announcement to pick it up, dealers said. The September Government stock contract closed three points easier at 8712 with a total of 456 lots traded. The contract traded between 8710 amd 8717 after opening on its high. The physical five-year Government stock closed at 12.03 per cent on the secondary market, unchanged from Monday and 0.85 per cent below futures. Bank bill contracts

were also little traded, with the September contract closing two points easier at 8595 with a total of 209 lots traded. The contract was marginally above the physical market which closed about 14.03 per cent. Barclays share index futures traded in a narrow seven point range with only 24 lots crossing the floor. Christchurch brokers were prominent as the contract closed 17 points easier at 2053, a 20 point premium to the sharemarket. Dealers said the Bank of New Zealand had been buying, probably for the AMP Society. This suggested AMP was bullish about the prospects of the New Zealand sharemarket. “It’s purely speculation (that AMP was buying) but probably not a bad guess,” said the manager of Egden Wignall Futures, Dr Brent Layton. The wool contract was untraded, with quotes in a wide range. The good news of the week had been the slide in the New Zealand dollar-Australian dollar cross rate. This was good news for Canterbury as many of the exporters in the region targeted Australian markets.

SUS CONTRACTS Mth Open H/L Last Vol Sep. 15783 793/685 685 7 Oct. 15770 770/770 770 3 Contracts traded: 10. Open positions at August 22: September 394, October 6, December 57, total 457 (up 99). GOVERNMENT STOCK Mth Open H/L Last Vol Sep. 8705 705/705 705 20 Contracts traded: 20. Open positions at August 22: September 276, total 276 (down 5). GOVERNMENT STOCK 11/93 Mth Open H/L Last Vol Sep. 8717 717/710 712 449 Dec. 8720 726/720 725 7 Contracts traded: 456. Open positions at August 22: September 6415, December 84, March 77, total 6576 (up 86). WOOL Contracts traded: nil. Open positions at August 22: August 4, October 43, December 19, January 2, March 3, total 71 (down 10). 90-DAY BANK BILLS Mth Open H/L Last Vol Sep. 8595 600/593 595 111 Oct. 8598 605/598 600 57 Dec. 8615 621/615 616 41 Contracts traded: 209. Open positions at August 22: September 1691, October 179, November 10, December 550, March 123, June 20, September 7, total 2580 (up 17). SYDNEY ALL-ORDS (half-points omitted) Prev. Mth close H/L Last Vol Sep. 1655 644/624 628 1027 Dec. 652/643 643 2 Contracts traded: 1029. Open positions at August 22: 4662 (up 56). BARCLAY’S SHARE INDEX Mth Open H/L Last Vol Sep. 2050 055/048 053 24 Contracts traded: 24. *. Open positions at August 22: September 196, total 196 (up 4).