The Hindu Business Line : Bull run arrested

THE sentiment reading of the tradable counters remains bullish. Neither the bulls nor the bears could gain much from the day's trading. Bear domination on Thursday is likely to change the sentiment reading in their favour.

Otherwise, the prevailing bullish sentiment is likely to continue with added strength.

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Nifty futures recommendation: During the open, the December month contract gained six points. Thereafter, bears gained control of the day's proceedings. The December contract moved within a band of 20 points registering an intra-day low of 2064.50. It closed with a loss of six points with respect to previous close.

Thursday being the expiry day, the long position in the December contract may be held with the stop order placed at 2043.15. The position is locked-up with a nominal profit of nine points. If the stop is not hit, allow the position to expire. Bearish trigger level is given for the January contract and this is placed slightly away from its last traded value.

Stock futures recommendation: There were no new entries or exits to the top-10 tradable list. The ranking of the list underwent a change. Tata Steel and State Bank interchanged their positions.

For Thursday, most of the counters in the list are likely to be under threat. Fresh entry levels for all the contracts are given for the January contract. Bears are likely to have opportunity in as much as seven counters. Buying opportunities are likely to exist in four counters. Selling in Ranbaxy is likely to be the best bet for Thursday's trading. This counter is in the uptrend. The exit and sell levels for this counter is placed quite closer to its current level. Bear move on Thursday has the potential to trigger these levels.

Cash segment: The composition of the top-10 active counters list remains unchanged. The ranking of the list had some changes. Tata Steel moved to the fourth position followed by Maruti and Satyam. Wednesday's market action resulted in triggering the uptrend in Infosys.

Bear move on Thursday could be a threat to most of the uptrend counters in the list. On the contrary, the lone downtrend counter-Tata Motors is likely to be terminated. Four opportunities are likely to exist in either side of trading. Selling in Maruti is likely to be the best for Thursday's trading. Bearish trigger level for this counter is placed just below its closing price. Bear pressure on Thursday is likely to initiate a fresh downtrend in Maruti.

(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 technical analyst and fund management consultant.