Futures and options turnover for the week of 31 August to 4 September 2026 came to about INR 568,695 crores. That splits into INR 348,814 crores of futures turnover across 647 live contracts, 629 stock futures on 210 stocks and 18 index futures on 6 indices, and INR 219,881 crores of options premium turnover. There was no monthly expiry in this window; the next one falls on 29 September. Open interest changes this week reflect fresh positioning rather than a roll. NIFTY's September futures contract ended the week down 1.21% while its open interest rose 9.39%, a Short Buildup reading at the index level, and BANKNIFTY's September contract stayed close to flat, down 0.15% with open interest up 0.41%. All numbers below come from data on bhavcopydata.com.
Futures, open interest builds up on the short side
We matched each stock's Friday 28 August close and open interest against its Friday 4 September numbers, contract by contract, since a single stock can carry three live expiries at once and a symbol level average would blur them together. Of 629 stock futures contracts, 612 traded at least INR 1 crore for the week and were kept for this comparison; the rest were too thin to read.
The tilt was clearly bearish. 372 contracts fell into Short Buildup, price down while open interest rose, against 126 in Long Buildup, price up with rising open interest. Short Covering, price up while open interest fell, held 36 contracts, and Long Unwinding, price down with open interest also falling, held 78. Adding the two bearish buckets together, 450 contracts against 162 bullish, this was a week where more money built into fresh short positions than fresh long ones.
The clearest short buildups sat in three unrelated names, each falling on real turnover with rising open interest on every expiry it has. KEI Industries Ltd (KEI) fell 11.94% on its September contract on INR 2,084.0 crores with open interest up 26.86%, and its October and November contracts fell 12.43% and 15.27% with open interest also higher on both. Kaynes Technology India Ltd (KAYNES) fell 12.29% on INR 928.1 crores with open interest up 14.47%, again with its later contracts down double digits too. Adani Energy Solutions Ltd (ADANIENSOL) fell 10.91% on INR 1,911.1 crores with open interest up 30.75%, consistent across its own three expiries. None of these reverted during the week, each fell in stages across multiple sessions on real volume rather than in one jump, so we read them as genuine repricing rather than a data artifact. The largest short buildup by turnover was Swiggy Ltd (SWIGGY), down a smaller 0.89% on INR 4,390.9 crores with open interest up 36.46%, and Eternal Ltd (ETERNAL) also showed up here, down 1.22% on INR 2,560.1 crores with open interest up 10.44%, a name we come back to below.
Fresh buying went the other way. Vodafone Idea Ltd (IDEA) was the standout, up in all three of its live contracts, 2.44% on the September contract on INR 2,350.6 crores with open interest up 1.72%, 2.42% on October with open interest up 21.02%, and 2.20% on November with open interest up 166.67% off a small base. Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) split by expiry, its October contract carried fresh buying, open interest up 99.71% on a small 0.05% price gain and INR 643.9 crores of turnover, while its September contract showed the opposite, price up 0.07% with open interest down 17.96% on INR 731.1 crores, existing longs taking profit rather than new ones opening. Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Yes Bank Ltd (YESBANK) both rose on falling open interest too, PNB up 1.22% with open interest down 5.30% and YESBANK up 1.75% with open interest down 1.50%.
On the unwind side, Bandhan Bank Ltd (BANDHANBNK) fell 2.44% with open interest down 9.01%, and ITC Ltd (ITC) fell 0.73% with open interest down 4.52% on INR 1,462.6 crores, both existing longs closing out rather than new shorts opening.
By turnover, NIFTY was again the most traded contract of the week at INR 35,074.4 crores, ahead of BANKNIFTY at INR 12,426.3 crores, HDFC Bank Ltd (HDFCBANK) at INR 11,052.8 crores and Reliance Industries Ltd (RELIANCE) at INR 10,324.9 crores.
Options, BANKNIFTY's ratio slides while NIFTY resets at the weekly roll
BANKNIFTY's put to call ratio by open interest fell in a clean line all week, from 1.1213 on Monday to 1.054 on Tuesday, 1.0552 on Wednesday, 1.0407 on Thursday and 1.0316 on Friday, relatively more call open interest building through the week even as the index itself stayed flat.
NIFTY's own front expiry ratio is harder to read cleanly this week because a weekly expiry fell on Monday, 1 September, so the contract being measured changes mid week. It read 0.804 on Monday, rose to 0.863 into that expiry, then reset to 0.729 once positions moved to the fresh 8 September weekly, before easing further to 0.656 on Wednesday and climbing back to 0.844 by Friday. Read across the full week rather than day by day, the ratio ended a touch higher than it started, 0.844 against 0.804 the prior Monday.
Index options carried the bulk of premium turnover, as usual. The expiring 1 September weekly saw INR 80,680.8 crores and the fresh 8 September weekly saw INR 83,346.3 crores, BANKNIFTY's monthly saw INR 11,219.2 crores and NIFTY's own 29 September monthly saw INR 6,390.8 crores. Among stock options, HDFC Bank Ltd (HDFCBANK) was the most active at INR 1,462.7 crores, just ahead of BSE Ltd (BSE) at INR 1,447.8 crores, followed by Reliance Industries Ltd (RELIANCE) at INR 1,144.0 crores.
Large trades, the same funds sell Eternal and Laurus Labs in both markets
Eternal Ltd (ETERNAL) and Laurus Labs Ltd (LAURUSLABS) were the two largest net sells in block and bulk deals this week, INR 3,262.4 crores and INR 2,715.3 crores respectively, almost entirely on 31 August as BNP Paribas Financial Markets, Integrated Core Strategies Asia Pte Ltd and Societe Generale sold across both names. The same two stocks also carried a Short Buildup reading in futures, ETERNAL's September contract down 1.22% with open interest up 10.44% and LAURUSLABS down 3.30% with open interest up on every one of its three live expiries. Two independent NSE data sets, block and bulk deal disclosures and futures open interest, point the same direction on the same names in the same week, which is a stronger read than either one alone.
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All figures are from NSE end of day futures and options data for 31 August to 4 September 2026, as published on bhavcopydata.com. Follow the author at @psanivarapu or prashanthsanivarapu for more.