The Hindu Business Line : Sideways movement

TODAY'S market witnessed sideways movement. The sentiment reading of the tradable counters remains bullish. Bear pressure on Thursday is likely to change the sentiment reading in their favour. On the contrary, the prevailing bullish sentiment is likely to be further strengthened with additional counters.

Nifty futures recommendation: The February month contract opened with a bear gap of around three points. However, bears could not capitalise their initial momentum and succumbed to bull pressure. The February month contract moved with in a range of around 25 points making an intraday high of 3,060. It closed with a gain of around 15 points from its previous close.

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The long position in the February month contract is intact. The exit levels for the February month contract is placed quite far away from its last traded price. The sell level is placed at March contract. In the normal course of trading, these levels are unlikely to be triggered during Thursday's trading.

Stock futures recommendation: The composition and the ranking of the top-10 tradable list had major changes. IPCL, Maruti, Hind lever and Hindalco went out of the top-10 tradable list and these counters are filled by Tata Steel, State Bank, Ranbaxy and MTNL. Most of the counters changed their positions. All Exit levels are placed at February month contract and the sell levels are placed at March month contract due to the expiration of future contracts.

All the counters in the top-10 tradable list are likely to be under threat for Thursday's trading except MTNL and Tata Tea. Buying opportunities are likely to exist in MTNL and Tata Tea. There are ample selling opportunities in the list. The best for Thursday is likely to be selling in Reliance. This counter is in uptrend. Bear pressure on Thursday 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. HDFC is gone out from the top-10 tradable list. This counter is in up trend. The exit level for this counter is placed at 1332.9. Most of the counters interchanged their positions.

All the counters in the top-10 tradable list are under threat for Thursday. There are ample selling opportunities in the top-10 tradable list. Three buying opportunities are likely to exist in ICICI, Infosys and VSNL. 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.