Global investors bought a net 14.3 billion rupees ($260 million) of Indian equity derivatives yesterday, according to the National Stock Exchange.

Open interest, or the number of contracts outstanding in value terms, rose 3.2 percent to 679.4 billion rupees, or 33.4 percent of the gross market position, according to the exchange’s website. Open interest reached a record 1.6 trillion rupees on Sept. 21, 2010.

Foreign funds bought a net 2.69 billion rupees of shares in the cash segment yesterday, according to preliminary data given by the bourse.

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To contact the editor responsible for this story: Arijit Ghosh at aghosh@bloomberg.net