The Hindu Business Line : Bears prevail

BEARS prevailed over Wednesday's trading activity. The sentiment reading of the tradable counters changed to bearish. Bull pressure on Thursday is likely to change the sentiment reading in their favour. On the contrary, the bearish sentiment is likely to be strengthened.

Nifty futures: The February month contract opened with a bull gap of around 7 points and went up further by around 8 points. However, bulls could not capitalise on their initial momentum and gave way to bears. The February month contract moved within a range of around 46 points making an intra-day low of 2978.30. It closed with a gain of around 3 points from its previous close.

The long position in February contracted exited with a loss of 10 points and entered a fresh short position. The exit and buy levels for the February month contract are placed quite nearer to its last traded price. These levels are likely to be triggered during Thursday's trading.

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Stock futures: The composition of the top-10 tradable list had no changes. However, the ranking of the list had minor changes. Tata Motors and State Bank interchanged their positions. The top-3 tradable counters in this segment were Hindustan Lever, ITC and Reliance.

All the counters in the top-10 tradable list are likely to be under threat for Thursday's trading. There are ample opportunities on the buy side. On the other hand, a lone opportunity on the sell side is likely to exist at Tata Motors. The best for Thursday is likely to be buying in Tata Steel. This counter is in downtrend. Bull pressure on Thursday is likely to reverse the existing trend in this counter.

Cash segment: The Composition and the ranking of the top-10 tradable list had minor changes. State Bank and Satyam went out of the list and gave way to Hindustan Lever and Tata Motors. Infosys moved down to fifth position and Titan moved up to second position.

All the uptrend counters in the top-10 tradable list are likely to be under threat for Thursday's trading. On the other hand, three downtrend counters are likely to be terminated. There are three opportunities on the buy side and two opportunities on the sell side. The best is likely to be selling in Tata Motors. This counter is in uptrend. Bear pressure on Thursday 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.