The Hindu Business Line : Volatile movement

Bulls managed to gain during the initial part of the day. But, they could not hold their forte and gave way to bears towards the end of the day. The sentiment reading of the tradable counters continues to remain bullish. Bears domination on Thursday is likely to turn the sentiment reading in their favour.

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Nifty Futures Recommendation: The January contract opened with a bull gap of around 3 points and further went up by 18 points. However, bears reversed the early Bull Run and made a new low towards the later part of the day. It closed for the day with a gain of 11 points from Tuesday's close.

The uptrend in the January contract is locked with a decent profit of around 58 points. Bear domination on Thursday has the potential to terminate the uptrend in the January contract. However, bearish trigger level is still placed quite far away. In the normal course of trading, downtrend is unlikely to be triggered on Thursday.

Stock Futures Recommendation: The composition of the top-10 tradable list had a change. GAIL gained entry to the top-10 tradable list while Hind Petro moved out. The ranking of the list had few changes. Satyam Computers moved to second place while GAIL occupied fifth place. The exit level for uptrend in Hind Petro and Infosys is placed at 439.95 and 5575.95, respectively.

None of the counters in the list are in downtrend. Bear domination on Thursday is likely to terminate the uptrend in CNXIT, Reliance Industries and Tata Motors. Maruti, Satyam Computers and Tata Motors are likely to have selling opportunities. Buying opportunities are likely to exist in ACC, Maruti and Ranbaxy for Thursday's trading. The best among these is likely to be selling in Tata Motors. Its sell level is placed quite nearer to its last traded price. Bear pressure on Thursday is likely to reverse the prevailing trend in this counter.

Cash Segment: The top-10 tradable list in this segment remained unchanged. However, ranking of the list had changes. SAIL moved to third place followed by Tata Steel. GAIL moved up to sixth place followed by BPCL, Polaris, Tata Motors and Ranbaxy.

The uptrend in Infosys, Reliance Industries and Tata Steel is likely to be under threat on Thursday. The lone downtrend counter — SAIL is likely to be terminated by the bull pressure on Thursday. Bears are likely to have opportunities in Infosys and Satyam Computers. Ranbaxy and Tata Motors are likely to have buying opportunities. The best bet is likely to be buying in Tata Motors. Its buy level is quite nearer to its closing price. Bull pressure on Thursday has the potential to initiate fresh uptrend in this counter.

(Note: All price levels refer to the absolute value of the shares traded on the NSE. There is risk of loss in trading.)

The author is a Chennai-based technical analyst and fund management consultant.