India benchmark index futures premium widens

MUMBAI, May 12 (Reuters) - The premium on the benchmark stock index futures widened on Monday as investors booked profits due to short-covering, analysts said.

"We have seen some amount of short-covering happening in 4,950-, 4,940-levels. The short-covering rose and that's the reason we have some amount of bounce-back from lower levels", said Siddharth Bhamre, investment strategist with Angel Broking.

Short-covering was seen in several counters including real estate, fertilizers and steel, analysts said.

The premium on the Nifty May futures NIFc1 to the 50-share NSE index widened to 9.35 points, compared with 7.1 points on Friday.

The current month Nifty futures ended up 0.65 percent at 5,022 points. The spot index closed up 0.6 percent at 5,012.65 points.

"But this (short coverings) really doesn't suggest that the downtrend is over. We still feel the market is going to fall", said Savio Shetty, analyst at Prabhudas & Lilladher.

"We feel it is a case of relief buying rather than sustained buying", Shetty said.

Analysts see support levels of around 4,800 to 4,900 points and resistance of around 5,175 points for the spot index this week.

Total derivates segment turnover on Monday stood at about 410 billion rupees, compared with 349.5 billion rupees on Friday.