Futures and options turnover for the week of 24 to 28 August 2026 came to about INR 1,014,805 crores. That splits into INR 789,723 crores of futures turnover across 647 live contracts, 629 stock futures on 210 stocks and 18 index futures on 6 indices, and INR 225,082 crores of options premium turnover. The monthly expiry fell on Tuesday 25 August, in the middle of the week. NIFTY's September futures contract ended the week down 0.20% and BANKNIFTY's September contract ended down 0.32%, both close to flat. All numbers below come from data on bhavcopydata.com.
Turnover was front loaded into the expiry and then fell away fast. Daily futures turnover ran near INR 334,967 crores on Monday and INR 258,357 crores on Tuesday, the expiry day, then dropped to INR 73,233 crores on Wednesday, INR 66,688 crores on Thursday and INR 56,478 crores on Friday. This is the reverse of the week before, when turnover built up into a Friday expiry. With the expiry out of the way by Tuesday, the back half of the week was quiet.
Futures, position reduction dominates the expiry week
Positions roll from the expiring contract to the next one around an expiry, so we measure each stock's open interest change across all of its live contracts combined, near month plus next month plus far month, so that a pure roll from August to September nets to zero. Price change is measured on the September contract, which traded through the whole week on both sides of the comparison. We looked at 207 stock futures that traded at least INR 1 crore for the week.
Open interest fell in 163 of those 207 names and rose in only 44. Total stock futures open interest was down about 5.1% on the week. A broad drop like this around an expiry means August positions were closed out rather than carried forward, so the new September cycle is starting lighter. On the price and open interest grid the tilt was mildly bearish, 109 names in the two bearish buckets against 98 in the two bullish ones. The two largest buckets were Short Covering with 83 names, price up while open interest fell, and Long Unwinding with 80 names, price down while open interest fell.
Fresh buying, price up with rising open interest, was concentrated in metals and public sector names. Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) rose 14.60% on the week on INR 7,651.1 crores of turnover with open interest up 1.83%. Tata Steel Ltd (TATASTEEL) rose 1.98% with open interest up 6.09% on INR 6,159.8 crores, and Adani Power Ltd (ADANIPOWER) rose 4.26% with open interest up 5.59% on INR 6,355.8 crores. LIC Housing Finance Ltd (LICHSGFIN) stood out for conviction, up 9.16% with open interest up a heavier 17.28% on INR 3,982.3 crores.
Fresh selling, price down with rising open interest, showed up in some of the week's largest names. Reliance Industries Ltd (RELIANCE) fell 1.94% with open interest up 4.17% on INR 18,114.1 crores of turnover, the second highest single stock turnover of the week. Bharti Airtel Ltd (BHARTIARTL) fell 3.59% with open interest up 5.81% on INR 10,618.1 crores. Tata Power Company Ltd (TATAPOWER) fell 6.40% with open interest up a heavier 14.99% on INR 3,474.1 crores, and Varun Beverages Ltd (VBL) fell 3.81% with open interest up 18.06% on INR 4,559.8 crores. Dixon Technologies India Ltd (DIXON) also drew fresh shorts, down 1.4% with open interest up 14.4% on INR 8,920.4 crores.
Among names where price rose as open interest fell, Vodafone Idea Ltd (IDEA) was the largest, up 4.90% on INR 14,091.6 crores of turnover with open interest down 6.44%. NMDC Ltd (NMDC) rose 3.69% with open interest down 14.77%, and Infosys Ltd (INFY) rose 2.3% with open interest down 10.3% on INR 12,989.7 crores. Angel One Ltd (ANGELONE) showed the sharpest drop, up 1.84% with open interest down 22.72%.
Among names where price fell as open interest fell, Federal Bank Ltd (FEDERALBNK) dropped 4.12% with open interest down 12.56%. ITC Ltd (ITC) fell 1.24% with open interest down 7.58% on INR 5,403.0 crores, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M) fell 2.9% with open interest down 10.8%, and Eternal Ltd (ETERNAL) was close to flat, down 0.29%, with open interest down 9.46% on INR 6,971.9 crores.
At the index level, measured across both live expiries combined, NIFTY open interest rose 1.91% against a 0.20% price fall, a mild Short Buildup reading. BANKNIFTY open interest fell 9.53% against a 0.32% price fall, a Long Unwinding reading. NIFTY was again the most traded contract of the week at INR 67,797.2 crores, ahead of BANKNIFTY at INR 27,942.6 crores, HDFC Bank Ltd (HDFCBANK) at INR 25,014.1 crores and Reliance Industries Ltd (RELIANCE) at INR 18,114.1 crores.
Options, NIFTY's new weekly opens call heavy while BANKNIFTY's monthly opens cautious
NIFTY's front expiry put to call ratio by open interest was choppy through the mid week roll. It read 1.08 on 21 August, dropped to 0.69 on 24 August, then went back to 1.09 on the 25 August expiry itself. Once positions moved to the fresh 1 September weekly expiry, the ratio stayed below one every day, 0.73 on 26 August, 0.59 on 27 August and 0.78 on 28 August. More calls than puts were open in the new weekly, a mildly bullish or range bound tilt even as the index drifted lower. On Friday NIFTY's largest call open interest sat at the 24,300 strike and its largest put open interest at the 24,000 strike, bracketing the 24,176 close in a tight band.
BANKNIFTY told a more cautious story. Its front expiry ratio ran 0.86 on 21 August, 0.70 on 24 August and 0.87 on the 25 August expiry, then jumped above 1.10 once positions rolled straight to the 29 September monthly, reading 1.14 on 26 August, 1.10 on 27 August and 1.11 on 28 August. More puts than calls were open in the new BANKNIFTY monthly. Its largest call and put open interest both sat at the 57,500 strike on Friday, right at the 57,496 close.
By premium turnover, index options carried the week. NIFTY options saw INR 170,884.6 crores, BANKNIFTY INR 21,654.6 crores and Nifty Midcap Select (MIDCPNIFTY) INR 2,180.0 crores. Among stock options the most active were HDFC Bank Ltd (HDFCBANK) at INR 922.1 crores, BSE Ltd (BSE) at INR 807.6 crores, Dixon Technologies India Ltd (DIXON) at INR 780.8 crores and Reliance Industries Ltd (RELIANCE) at INR 725.2 crores.
Among stock options with at least INR 1 crore of premium turnover on 28 August, the most call heavy were Info Edge India Ltd (NAUKRI) at a ratio of 0.41 on INR 29.4 crores and Supreme Industries Ltd (SUPREMEIND) at 0.45 on INR 27.1 crores. The most put heavy was KEI Industries Ltd (KEI) at a ratio of 1.92 on INR 9.7 crores, followed by L&T Finance Ltd (LTF) at 1.25 on INR 7.0 crores.
Large trades
No stock that saw concentrated institutional buying in block and bulk deals this week also showed rising futures open interest, so there is no crossover to flag. The week's single largest block was Hero MotoCorp Ltd buying INR 1,758.2 crores of Ather Energy Ltd (ATHERENERG) from the Government of Singapore on 28 August, a strategic stake purchase rather than a positioning trade.
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All figures are from NSE end of day futures and options data for 24 to 28 August 2026, as published on bhavcopydata.com. Follow the author at @psanivarapu or prashanthsanivarapu for more.