The markets opened on a very firm wicket as overseas cues and bear-covering powered values higher. The traded volumes were expectedly truncated as participation levels were of a token nature.
The BSE indicated a market breadth of 4:1, which indicates a buying bias. The sectoral indices show a near-uniform buying momentum, but the headline index (Nifty 50) was marginally stronger as the buying was focused on index heavyweights.
The markets have closed at the upper end of the intraday band and that too on positive market internals. While these data are of limited help to a market watcher, the oversold nature of the markets and positive overseas cues inspire confidence in the absolute near term.
The intraday low of 2,526 needs watching as a consistent trade below this threshold will result in the short-term weakness. The range for the coming session is likely to be between 2,790 on advances and 2,525 on declines. Being the expiry session, the immediate concern of the players will be rollovers of residual positions remaining in the markets.
The outlook for the coming session is that of cautious optimism as the bears are likely to be on the defensive in the absolute near term. Declines, if any, will be calibrated and less sharper than the recent weeks. I maintain my view that long-term players may commence bottom-fishing with a two-year horizon.
