Markets on March 9: Flag breakout

The domestic indices managed to check the damage in the final hour of trade, as some buying emerged at lower levels. But this could not p...

The domestic indices managed to check the damage in the final hour of trade, as some buying emerged at lower levels. But this could not prevent the indices ending well in the red. Sensex closed 165 points down and Nifty ended 47 points lower. Mid-cap and small-cap indices ended on a weak note as well. On the daily chart, Nifty has formed an inside bar pattern, which indicates a tug-of-war between the bulls and the bears, and the clearance of its (inside bar’s) high or low will be a trend-deciding move.On the hourly chart, the bearish flag of Nifty has given a breakout, which is a sign favouring the bears, but until the low of 2539 is breached the probability of double bottom cannot be ruled out. Momentum oscillator KST is still driving its negative trend. Bears dominated the market breadth with 846 declines and 351 advances.

The hourly momentum is still positive, as KST has not yet given a negative crossover. Our short- and mid-term biases are still maintained with a downward bias for thetarget of 2550 and 2450 respectively with the short- andmid-term reversal at 2800 and 3111 respectively.

Selling activity spared none. Real estate, banking and fast moving consumer goods stocks led the pack of losers. From the 30 stocks of Sensex, HDFC (up 3%) led the pack of gainers. However Jaiprakash Associates (down 5%),State Bank of India (down 5%) and DLF (down 4.5%) led the clutch of losing stocks.