Among the heavyweight stocks, Hindustan Lever, Castrol, Novartis and Britannia attracted backwardation charges during the course of the badla session on Saturday. Market observers attribute this new development to the concentrated purchases by foreign institutional investors at these counters.

It may be recalled that the short positions at these counters had risen substantially during the last two trading sessions.

"Failure of short sellers to face their obligations forces them to buy shares in the badla session by paying a backwardation charge," explained a BSE broker in the light of the high interest rates paid by various short sellers to purchase these pivotals in order to meet theirsale obligations.

HLL, which touched a new 52-week high of Rs 1,786 on Friday, attracted a backwardation charge of Rs 0.99 weighted average pegged at the hawala price of Rs 1,745. Castrol attracted a backwardation charge of Rs 0.44 based on the hawala price of Rs 675.

However, Novartis attracted the highest backwardation charge of Rs 6.65 weighted average, with the badla rate marked at a high of 40.67 per cent.

"The direction of the market would now depend upon the decisions taken in the parliament session," said Arun Kejriwal of Woodstock Securities, with reference to the clearance of the IRA Bill and Patents Bill. With the BSE issuing a notice to the brokers on the need to collect upfront margins and the restructuring of the exposure levels, market participants at large feel that the impact could be seen from the next settlement itself. Market observers feel that this could lead to a downfall in the volumes on the bourses.

Among the pivotals, Reliance Industries attracted a carryforward charge of12.17 per cent annualised based on the weighted average badla charge of Rs 0.28. ITC also attracted a carryforward charge of 12.62 per cent.