| The markets opened on a shaky note and proceeded to trade lower through Monday's session. |
| The benchmark indices lost more than a per cent as bulls surrendered the initiative completely to bears. |
| Traded volumes were significantly lower than what was seen in last Friday's session and the 10-day average. |
| The market breadth was highly negative as the ratio of advancing to declining shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) combined stood at 637 : 2198. |
| The capitalisation of the breadth was also negative as the figures on the two bourses taken together stood at Rs 893 crore: Rs 3,960 crore. |
| The indices are now trading below the halfway mark in the upward sloping channel formed since June 2004, which points towards further weakness. |
| The immediate support for the Nifty is likely at 1728 levels and the commensurate levels on the Sensex will be around 5525 in the coming few sessions. |
| Upsides are likely to be limited to 1788 and 5645 in the immediate future. |
| Should the indices plunge further with a slight increase in volumes, bears are likely to command sentiment as bulls would pare their exposure en masse. |
| The outlook for Tuesday is that of absolute caution and I re-affirm my weak outlook as the index heavyweights are showing signs of topping out in the near term. |
| Barring select technology stocks, the overall outlook remains very, very cautious. |
| I would advocate abstinence from fresh long positions. Savvy and high-risk traders can exploit opportunities on the short side on the Nifty and select commodity stocks. |
| Traded volumes should be curtailed in view of the lack of depth in the markets.
Vijay L Bhambwani |
| Sebi disclosure: the author has no outstanding positions in any of the stocks mentioned above |
Hints of further weakness comes to fore
TECHNICALS
Don't miss the most important news and views of the day. Get them on our Telegram channel
First Published: Oct 26 2004 | 12:00 AM IST
