The Hindu Business Line : Sideways movement

Trading activity witnessed sideways movement on Wednesday. But the sentiment reading of the tradable counters continues to remain bullish. Bear move 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

The January month contract opened with a bull gap of around 8 points from its previous close. The contract moved within a range of around 25 points making an intra-day low of 4069.30. It closed with a loss of around five points from its previous close.

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The short position in the contract remains intact. The short exit and long entry levels are placed quite nearer to its last traded price. These levels are likely to be triggered during trading on Thursday.

Stock futures

The composition and the ranking of the top-10 tradable list had minor changes. ONGC and Bank of India gave way to Tata Steel and Reliance Capital. Reliance, Infosys and Satyam moved down, while Century Tex moved up in the ranking.

The short exit level for ONGC and Bank of India are placed at 924.05 and 206.35, respectively. The top-3 tradable counters in this segment were Reliance Communications, Reliance Industries and SAIL.

There are eight uptrend and two downtrend counters in the top-10 tradable list. Except IDBI and ICICI, other uptrend counters are likely to be under threat for Thursday's trading. On the other hand, all the downtrend counters are likely to be terminated.

There are ample selling opportunities and two buying opportunities for Thursday's trading. The best among them is likely to be selling in Century Textiles. Bear move 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. ONGC gave way to M&M, which occupied tenth position in the ranking. Polaris, ICICI and TCS moved up, while BHEL and SAIL moved down in the ranking.

The long exit level for Tata Motors is placed at 946.95 and the short exit level for ONGC is placed at 921.05.

There are eight uptrend and a two downtrend counters in the list. Except ICICI, other uptrend counters are likely to be under threat for Thursday's trading. On the other hand, both the downtrend counters are likely to be terminated. There are ample selling and two buying opportunities for Thursday's trading.

The best among them is likely to be buying in BHEL. This counter is in downtrend. Bull move on Thursday is likely to reverse the prevailing 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.