Futures surge on late buying

LATE afternoon buying saw the futures market move from a discount to the cash market to close the day at a 26-point premium at 9,390.

Futures volume surged to 21,487 contracts worth $10.08 billion. There was a fair amount of roll-over activity with 7,240 November contracts traded.

News that an airport deal was in the wind hit the wires a few minutes before the morning session closed.

This obviously had an effect because the market shot up from the opening of the second session.

There were also signs of some bear squeezing and short covering with expiration on Thursday.

Jardine Fleming said trading sentiment was weak in the morning session but a flood of overseas buy orders in the afternoon reversed sentiment.