Inconclusive Meet on JPC Pushes Nifty Further Down

Market reacted negatively to the inconclusive end to the meet called to discuss parliament logjam. Nifty traded below 5400 for the whole session and lack of any support even at lower levels resulted in another sharp cut of more than 1.5%. There were sharp cuts in various counters mainly in infrastructure space. LITL that came out with results yesterday was down more than 17% as the stock collapsed to almost 18 months low. GMR Infra, Punj Lloyd, IRB Infra, GVK, Unitech and NCC witnessed cuts of 6 to 10 % each on relentless selling and almost no buying support even at almost 24-30 months lows. Other counters that witnessed significant loss in market cap were BEML, Ispat, JSW Steel, S.Kumars, KS Oils, Praj, MLL, Indian Info, IFCI, TVS Motors, Triveni, M&M and Titan. There was a clear disinterest in value picking any stock/sector as almost all sectors struggled. Bank Nifty made a new recent low after moving sideways for past 2-3 weeks and that doesn’t augur well for the broader markets. ICICI, HDFC bank and PNB lost ground. Number of mid cap banking counters made new recent lows. Few stocks that did manage to see some stock specific upmoves were Fortis, Bajaj Auto, ABG Ship, NMDC and Auro Pharma. But apart from Fortis that gained more than 5% on huge stocks others just about manage to eke out small gains. Overall, it was yet another good day for bears as they pushed for lower levels on almost no resistance by bulls.

Bulls seem to have thrown in towel as levels are being taken out without much effort. Till about two days ago we were discussing the possibility of 5450 providing some support and here we are about 150 points lower even from that level. Almost all sectors are succumbing to the negative sentiments with infrastructure being the current favorite with bears. The way some of the infra stocks have seen erosion of market cap over last 2-3 weeks is simply amazing. Many stocks have entered heavily oversold positions. 5350 has also not held and now we are firmly in the 4800 to 5450 range where we traded for almost 11 months before the Nifty broke out. 5440-50 has become an immediate strong resistance while 5550-60 remains a strong intermediate reversal level. One should be careful to be on the short side as stocks and indices have entered oversold zone and any positive factor (one of them could be Govt agreeing for JPC) could trigger a sharp rebound. 5375-5380 would be the initial level to watch and then 5440-50.