The Hindu Business Line : Bull run arrested

Thursday's trading activity arrested the bull run. The sentiment reading of the tradable counters was marginally bullish. Bear move on Friday is likely to change the sentiment reading in its favour. On the contrary, the prevailing bullish sentiment is likely to be further strengthened with additional counters.

Nifty futures

The August month contract opened around its previous close. The August contract moved with in a range of around 49 points making an intra-day low of 3,325. It closed with a loss of around five points from its previous close.

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The long position in the August contract remains intact and has locked in a profit of around 86 points. Both the long exit and short entry levels are placed quite far away from its last traded price. In the normal course of trading during Friday these levels are unlikely to be triggered.

Stock Futures

The composition and ranking of the top-10 tradable list had minor changes. Tata Motors gave way to Bajaj Auto.

Bajaj Auto occupied 10th position. ONGC and Satyam moved up and occupied fourth and fifth positions respectively while Infosys moved down to sixth position in the ranking.

The top-3 tradable counters in this segment were Reliance, Tata Steel and IPCL.

The exit level for Tata Motors is placed at 794.60.

There are six downtrend counters and four uptrend counters in the top-10 tradable list. All the uptrend counters are likely to be under threat for Friday's trading.

Except Tata Steel all the other downtrend counters are likely to be under threat for Friday's trading. There are ample buying opportunities and three selling opportunities for Friday's trading. The best is likely to be buying in Satyam. This counter is in downtrend. Bull move on Friday is likely to reverse the existing trend in this counter.

Cash segment

The composition and the ranking of the top-10 tradable list had no changes. Most of the counters in the list are in uptrend.

All the uptrend counters are likely to be under threat for Friday's trading. On the other hand, the lone downtrend counter ITC is likely to be terminated during Friday's trading.

There are ample selling opportunities and two buying opportunities for Friday's trading. The best is likely to be buying in Satyam. This counter is in sideways mode. Bull move on Friday is likely to trigger the uptrend 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.