The Hindu Business Line : Bears prevail

BEARS prevailed over Friday's trading activity. The sentiment reading of the tradable counters remains bearish. Bull move on Monday is likely to change the sentiment reading in its favour. On the contrary, the bearish sentiment is likely to be further strengthened with additional counters.

Nifty Futures Recommendation: The February month contract opened with a bear gap of around 9 points. It moved within a range of around 32 points making an intraday low of 2915.10. It closed with a loss of around 32 points from its previous close.

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The long position in the February month contract exited and entered short in the morning session. The exit and buy levels for the February month contract are placed quite far away from its last traded price. In the normal course of trading, these levels are unlikely to be triggered during Monday's trading.

Stock Futures Commendation: The composition and ranking of the top-10 tradable list had no changes. The top three tradable counters in this segment were Tata Motors, State Bank and Reliance.

All the uptrend counters in the top 10 tradable list are likely to be under threat for Monday's trading. On the other hand, five downtrend counters are likely to be terminated. There are five opportunities on the buy side. The best for Monday is likely to be selling in Ranbaxy. This counter is in uptrend. Bear pressure on Monday is likely to reverse the existing trend in this counter.

Cash Segment: The composition and ranking of the top 10 tradable list had minor changes. ICICI Bank and Maruti went out of the top 10 tradable list and gave way to HDFC Bank and L&T. VSNL moved down to seventh position and Titan moved up to fourth position.

All the uptrend counters in the top 10 tradable list are likely to be under threat for Monday's trading. On the other hand, five downtrend counters are likely to be terminated. There are five opportunities on the bull side and a lone opportunity on the bear side. The best is likely to be selling in HDFC Bank. This counter is in uptrend. Bear pressure on Monday is likely to reverse the existing 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 technical analyst and fund management consultant.