CNBC-TV18's Head-Markets Research, Anuj Singhal - There is a touch of disappointment looking at the starting statistics for the series after what happened on Thursday. A look at those stats first -

Initial Open Int	May	Apr
Total F&O	Rs 49,251 cr	Rs 42,245 cr
Stock futures	Rs 22,422 cr	Rs 20,219 cr
Nifty futures	Rs 13,811 cr	Rs 14,307 cr
Nifty options	Rs 12,361 cr	Rs 7,370 cr

Agreed, the series is starting with around 17-18% higher Open Interest than April, but most of it because of Nifty options. After Wednesday, it looked like we are set to begin the series with around 55,000 crores of Open Interest, but the way volumes refused to pick up was disappointing. Also, there was quite a bit of profit taking in midcap stocks and that’s why there was no significant May build-up

The sense one got from looking at this data is that traders still believe that 5000 may not be a done deal yet. In fact Nifty closed bang on that level and both the calls and puts were quite active at 5000 strike. So we are set for another round of tussle between the bulls and the bears. The bears may want to take Nifty back to 4500 while the bulls have eyes set on 5300-5500.

IFCI is the stock to watch. It is just about beginning to take the leadership mantle it had when the Bull Run was at its peak and has consistently seen some buildup. Couple of others that stand out include Bank of India and Peninsula Land

DISCLAIMER: The author is not allowed to trade in equity markets including Futures and Options. His only exposure to capital markets is via shares of TV18 and Network18 granted to him as ESOPs by the company and investments in some long-term mutual funds.