The Hindu Business Line : Bearish trend to persist

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

Nifty futures recommendation: The April month contract opened with a bear gap of 16 points and steeply fell thereafter. Bears were in total control of the day's trading and this left the bulls with no opportunity to recover. The April contract closed lower with a loss of 78 points.

Click here for table

Bear domination during the day led to the reversal of the uptrend in the April contract. The long trade exited around its break-even level. The initiated short position is unlikely to be disturbed on Wednesday. The exit and bullish trigger levels for the April contract are placed far away.

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

All the counters in the list are in the downtrend. Bull domination on Wednesday could be a threat to the downtrend in ONGC and Satyam. Entry levels for all the counters are placed at a far away level. The nearest entry level is for Satyam. Bull domination on Wednesday has the potential to reverse the prevailing downtrend in this counter.

Cash segment: The composition of the top-10 tradable list underwent a change. Bharti Tele gained entry with the exit of Punjab Bank. The ranking of the list remains the same with no major changes.

Except for Maruti, all the other counters in the list are in the downtrend. For Wednesday, the downtrend in ONGC, Satyam and State Bank are likely to be under threat. Traders are left with a lone opportunity on either side of trading. This is likely to exist in Maruti, on the short side, and Satyam, on the long side. Between the two, the best is likely to be the selling in Maruti. Its bearish trigger level is placed close to its last traded price. Bear pressure on Wednesday is likely to trigger the downtrend 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.