The Hindu Business Line : Bears regain

THE sentiment reading of the tradable counters stands bearish with no uptrend counters. Irrespective of bull or bear domination on Thursday, the prevailing sentiment is likely to continue with a slight change in its value.

Nifty futures recommendation: February month contract opened around its previous close and steadily lost its ground. Bears were in total command of Wednesday's trading. The February contract moved within a band of 39 points. It closed lower with a loss of 37 points.

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The short position in the February contract is now locked-up with a decent profit of 43 points. Thursday being the last day of trading for the February contract, the short position should be held with the stop loss market order placed at 1859.25. If the stop loss order is not triggered, then allow the short position to expire.

Bullish entry level is given for the March contract. This level is placed quite far away and is unlikely to be triggered on Thursday.

Stock futures recommendation: The composition as well as the ranking of the top-10 tradable list remains intact. Tata Steel, Reliance and Satyam were the top three traded counters in this segment.

Except for M&M, all the other counters in the list are in the downtrend. The exit levels for the prevailing counters are out of the danger zone. Fresh entry levels for all the counters are given for the March contract. Traders are left with a lone opportunity for Thursday's trading.

This is likely to exist on the long side of M&M. Its bullish trigger level is placed within Rs 2 from its closing value. Bull pressure is likely to trigger this level on Thursday.

Cash segment: There has been no new entries into the Top-10 list on Wednesday. The ranking of the top-10 list also remains unaltered. Wednesday's market action had no impact on the recommended counter — State Bank.

Except for M&M, all the other counters in the list are in the downtrend. Bear pressure prevailing in the market has placed the exit and bullish trigger levels for all the tradable counters at a far away level. The nearest entry level is on the long side of State Bank. This counter is in the downtrend. Bull domination on Thursday has the potential to reverse the prevailing trend 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.