New Delhi, March 10 -- I wrote that retail traders were on the ropes. The monthly expiry data of February futures validated that hypothesis. An average trader was preoccupied with rolling over his long positions in the face of falling prices. The MWPL data confirms that; more on that below. March is typically a period when institutions rule the roost.
Being the end of the financial year, multiple factors are at play. The mutual fund industry (the biggest players in the markets) has a vested interest in higher stock prices, as it shows up in their annual performance reports to their investors. This performance depends on the future AUMs (assets under management). The middle of the month is the final date to pay the last instalment of advanc...