The morning session closed at 9,773, a three-point premium over the cash.

The afternoon session remained featureless with retail buying, which emerged after the index dropped to the day's low of 9,750, giving some support to the market towards the close.

Trading was dull despite volatile trading on Wall Street overnight, which dropped 29.98 points to 4,753.68.

Roll-over trading dominated the day, with 25,800 contracts traded.

October futures accounted for 14,441 contracts, while 11,359 November contracts were traded.

The underlying value of contracts traded was $12.61 billion.

Yamaichi, which established a presence on the floor recently, was active in long rolls at 14 points, according to W. I. Carr.

The proprietary trading houses felt that the long rolls were drying out and at the close, short rolls were being offered at a 12-point premium with no bid, the company said.

Spreads for the roll-over of October and November contracts was quoted at 14 and 15-point premiums in the morning, according to Jardine Fleming.

In the afternoon the market closed at 11 and 12 points, with trading the most active at 13 and 14 points, the brokerage said.

For options, overseas buyers bought October 9,600 puts and bulls were active in trading 9,800 calls.

Estimated volume for October 9,600 puts and November 9,800 calls were 293 lots and 239 lots. Volatility players also traded the October 9,800 straddles.

There were 1,560 lots traded in index options and open interests were 40,155.

For over-the-counter options, the volatilities were 25 per cent for September 9,600 and 25.5 per cent for December 9,600 options.

HSBC saw 948 calls and 284 puts traded, while Cheung Kong had 635 calls and 569 puts change hands.