The Hindu Business Line : Bears prevail

Bears dominated over Thursday's trading activity. The sentiment reading of the tradable counters changed to bearish. Bull move on Friday has the potential to change the sentiment reading in their favour. On the contrary, the prevailing bearish sentiment is likely to be further strengthened with additional counters.

Nifty Futures: The May month contract opened with a bear gap of around 9 points from its previous close. It moved within a range of around 62 points making an intra-day high of 4247.05 and ended with a loss of around 48 points from its previous close.

The short position in the May month contract is intact. The short exit and long entry levels are placed far away from its last traded price. These levels are unlikely to be triggered during Friday's trading activity.

Stock Futures: The composition and the ranking of the top-10 tradable list has minor changes. ACC made its way into the top-10 list pushing out Bank of India and occupied last position. Reliance moved from fourth to second, ICICI Bank moved from fifth to seventh and IDBI moved from eighth to sixth position in the list. The top-3 tradable counters in this segment were Reliance Capital, Reliance Energy and Tata Steel.

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There are each five uptrend and downtrend counters in the list. In the uptrend counters Reliance, Tata Steel and ICICI Bank are under threat for Friday. There are each three selling and buying opportunities likely to exist in the list. The best among the above is likely to be selling in ICICI Bank. This counter is in uptrend. Bear move on Friday is likely to reverse the trend in this counter.

Cash Segment: The composition of the top-10 tradable list has no changes. However, the ranking in the top-10 list had minor changes. Tata Motors moved from eighth to last position in the list.

There are three uptrend and six downtrend counters in the top-10 tradable list. In the uptrend counters, Reliance and Tata Steel are under threat for Friday. There are six buying and three selling opportunities likely to exist in the list. The best candidate is likely to be selling in TCS. This counter is in sideways trend. Bear move on Friday has the potential to initiate a fresh downtrend 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.