A View on the Forex (Foreign Currency) Markets

So, as expected, the market has fallen. It was probably holding on just because of the budget. As expected, the budget (being the last of the UPA - 2 regime), couldn't have been a reformist one. And because of the condition the country is in, it couldn't have been a populist one too. We are in dire need of money. With no reforms, it is sure to have an effect on the equity markets. Not only that, it will also affect the Forex markets and the Commodities markets. This post discusses just that - the effect of the Budget 2013 on the Equities, Commodities and Forex space.

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Commodities Now Looking Good

The Nifty after touching a high of 5777, just short of the previous high of 5815, has turned down again and closed 55 points in the red and has come back into the range of 5630-5730 that it was moving within. As of now, there is nothing to suggest that the Nifty has finished its uptrend and therefore we shall wait for some more time before taking short positions again. However, there is one thing that is causing concern. On 1st Nov, the Nofty made a high of 5649, while the next day the low was 5682, a gap of 33 points which was still unfilled. The lowest low the Nifty had made since then was 5679. Today, it made a low of 5677 and thus has come back into the 'uncharted territory'. This suggests that the gap may now be filled. While it should find support near 5650, but a move below that would be bearish.

Attached above is the daily chart of Aluminium. As seen from the chart, the prices had started rising from a low of 100.60 in mid Aug to a high of 117.55 in a month's time and then started falling and fell relentlessly till it had a 100% retracement to make a low of 100.70. Attached below is the weekly chart of Aluminium and shows that it has been moving within a range of 100-116 since July 2010 (except for a brief spell of about 45 days when it traded outside that range on the upside. This shows that the 100 support is very strong which has been tested and held successfully on a number of occasions in the last 28 months. And such a strong support is unlikely to be broken easily.

Coming back to the daily chart of Aluminium, we find that after making a low of 100.70, is now trying to go higher but is repeatedly finding resistance near the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level of 104.68. As mentioned in a few of my earlier posts, such a large move in any direction is usually accompanied by a fairly large retracement too. Though, a retracement to the 78.6% retracement of 114 is also possible, but I think keeping a target of 111 at the 61.8% retracement level should not be expecting too much. A level of 111 seems more reasonable, especially because it has found resistance near these levels in the past too. Though, it may very well start going up from here too but I have a feeling that it may come down to 101-102 before moving up again. Whether it does, or it doesn't, Aluminium is clearly a buy on dips commodity with a stop loss of 100 for targets of 111, 114 and then 116.

Attached above is the weekly chart of Nickel. The yellow line shown on the chart is just a horizontal line at 850. But the price movements have been such that it seems as if it is a wonderful trendline and see, how beautiful it is. Last three years the line has held despite being tested 7 times till now. The latest movement shows that again it has turned upwards after touching 850. Lets come to the daily chart of Nickel which has been attached below. As seen from the chart, it's a chart very similar to Aluminium. An upmove, a 100% retracement, an upward turn and now finiding resistance at the 23.6% retracement level.

As was the case in Aluminium, here too, I expect that every dip should be used as a buying opportunity. An opportunity to buy it between 860 and 865 would be brilliant. Keeping 850 as the stop loss, we should be booking partial profits at 915 and 935 and full profits near 960 (the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement).

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Sudden Bullishness Seen on Bearish Charts

In the first half of the day, the Nifty was still uncertain about which way to go. It opened slightly in the positive, came down in the red, went to the greener territories again and then back into the red. Just like a yo-yo. But then a surprise came. The Nifty suddenly started going up at around 1 pm and then there was no looking back for it. It went up as if it was never bearish. But does that mean the bearishness is over. Maybe, but we would need more confirmation before we change our view to bullish. What's going to happen in the future, only the market can tell us. We can only make predictions and predictions can sometimes go wrong too. The only mantra to success is that we recognise the change of trend as early as possible and not try to fight the markets when the markets have proved us wrong. Maybe, just maybe, what we saw today was the first sign of the trend changing.

Attached above is the daily chart of Nifty. As can be seen, it wasn't a big range candle. With a high of 5624 and a low of 5583, it was a range of only 41 points, which is not even a percent. A blue candle just a day after a downside breakout is not what's surprising because a pullback to 5630 was to be expected anyways. What's surprising is the strong one-sided upside pullback in a bearish trend. This is indicative of a stronger uptrend. Another thing that's surprising is that till yesterday most shares were displaying bearish patterns, and today most of them were bullish. Just to give you an idea, I did a quick scan to see how many stocks moved more than 3% up or down. And out of the stocks that I track, there were 15 such stocks. Out of these 15, only 2 stocks were more than 3% down while the remaining 13 were more than 3% up. Forget me, don't YOU find that surprising?

Seen above is the daily chart of Zee Entertainment. Now, this is such an interesting pattern. As can be seen, yesterday it tried to go below the 5 month old trendline, couldn't sustain at lower levels and made a hammer after a fairly decent downtrend. A hammer formation after a bearish trend is always a bullish sign. But we still needed that one blue candle for confirmation. And the confirmation came today, and oh, what a "resounding" confirmation with such a long range candle. What gives more confirmation to the expected uptrend is the RSI shifting back upwards from 40. I expect Zee to continue to go up and I see a target of not less than 209, could be more.

Attached above is the daily chart of Hindalco. Till now Hindalco was beaten and battered and was keeping a very low profile and was keeping quite subdued. A long range blue candle along with an Engulfing Pattern candlestick pattern suggests there is more upside to see. What gives it more strength is the fact that the RSI changed direction from 40. Moreover, the stochastics oscillator couldn't have been better placed going below 20 and just changing directions and is showing signs of improvement. While signs are already visible, that this time the trendline will be broken through but for now, we shall play it safe and assume a target near the trendline at 124 (and more if the trendline is broken through).

Attached above is the daily chart of Bata India. There seemed to be quite a good support between 865 and 870, as can be seen from the trendline. With that broken through without difficulty and quite decisively, there seems to be no difficulty predicting that there is more downside yet to be seen. The levels? Well, maybe, 770.

Crompton Greaves, on its daily chart, had been moving along in a downtrend since the beginning of days the chart, had broken through the trendline and was now going through a pullback, which is quite usually seen after a breakout. Some people, including Franklin Sanders, call this pullback as the last kiss goodbye. This just means that it had decided to go, started to go, then just turns back as if it has forgotten the kiss, comes, kisses the trendline and then, finally, leaves never to come back again. Well, not in the near future at least. What I liked about this chart is that it came back to the trendline, almost within, kissing distance before turning back again. Moreover, the RSI and stochastics are placed just where I like them to be (specially when I'm looking to buy). I would say, a target between 155 and 160 should not be too difficult for Crompton to achieve. It may just have to "greave" around a bit near 140 and 147 which may act as resistance levels.

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Maybe The RBI Credit Policy Will be The Trigger

Another narrow range day for the Nifty today. Opened with a slight gap up, continued its way down most of the day but showed a smart recovery of about 20 points in the last hour of trading and closed slightly in the green - just 1 point up. As of now it is continuing to trade in the range of 5630 to 5725. The cabinet reshuffle had virtually no effect on the Nifty. Maybe RBI credit policy will act as a trigger for the breakout from the range. Let's see whether it does happen tomorrow or not. The market is expecting the rates to remain unchanged or at the most a 25 basis points cut in the CRR.

As far as our previous recommendations are concerned, some of them have hit our target. Regarding our recommendations on Pantaloon and McDowells, Pantaloons has hit our first target of 177 and we'll have to wait and see whether it goes down to achieve our second target of 166 or not. On McDowells we had given a target of 1050 when it was trading at around 1250. Today it overshot our target too and touched a low of 989 intraday. In our recommendation on Sun TV, our target of 323 was achieved yesterday only but no fresh buying should be done here as it went below the trendline today and our next target for Sun TV is 275. A bounceback to 330-335 is possible in the next 3-5 days. IRB, Havell's, OBC and Ambuja Cement too are following our recommendations.

Attached above is the daily chart of BHEL. BHEL was displaying a bullish trend till now and today on the back of results (a 10% decline in profits), it lost more than 6%. As the trend still remains bullish, maybe, this is a good buying opportunity for us. Some good support is seen on the charts near 223. As seen from the chart, 224 happens to be a key support level (the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement) and the RSI is also close to 40. Tomorrow's movement, after allowing the market to settle down a bit, must be watched and BHEL can be bought on any signs of strength. However, if it continues to go down, next support may come in near 211. On the upside, we'll be looking at a target of 260 initially and then 290.

Attached above is the daily chart of Dabur. As can be seen from the chart, Dabur was respecting two trendlines till now and today it "disrespected" one of them and closed much below it. Though, the RSI still hasn't gone below 40 but I would still expect the price to come to the second trendline near 112-115 in the coming days. And maybe it can see a small recovery to 128-130 once again before starting its downfall again.

Attached above is the weekly chart of Gujarat Fluoro. And as can be seen on the chart, it has made a pattern which is not exactly a head and shoulders pattern but something on those lines. Though, it looks as if the price has broken through but I wouldn't confirm it this soon. I will prefer to see it go down to 310-315 before I would confirm that it has broken through the trendline. On a breakthrough of the trendline I expect a target between 170-180. But since this pattern is on a weekly chart, it will take a much longer time to go to that level. It could be as much as 8-9 months. So, patience is required.

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Still Rangebound, A Range Breakout to Decide Direction

It was again a narrow range day for the Nifty. A total intraday movement of 56 points (1%) but a better day, nevertheless, because it traded with a negative bias all through the day before recovering some of its losses in the last hour. I say, a better day because it went in the direction which we expected. And as long as it fulfills our expectations, it keeps us happy. And that's all that we desire from it. Just keep giving us profits if you want love from us. I still don't understand why the Nifty is still holding up. What is it waiting for - a cabinet reshuffle or the RBI monetary policy. Well, if it's one of those things then a move - this way or that - is coming soon. A move above 5725 would change (probably, though I don't like to change my views often) our bearishness.

I'm not attaching the chart of Nifty today as there is nothing new to show. However, as always am doing the daily analysis of some of the stocks. Friday seemed to be at bad day for the banking stocks. I say that because on my stock radar (the stocks that I regularly monitor), there were 13 stocks which closed 3% or more below their previous closes and out of those 13 stocks, 6 were banking stocks. Surprisingly, amongst all this negativity surrounding banking stocks, our buy call on OBC yesterday fell only by Rs.4/- and is still looking good for a move to 350.

Attached above is the daily chart of Reliance Capital, which has already come down quite a bit off its previous high. But, as we can see from the chart, Reliance Capital rose from a low of 315.10 in end of August to a high of 472.90 in early October, going up by 50%. Going up by 50% in 6 weeks is a big move and a big move is always (invariably) followed by a big correction. The same scenario was seen in Jan-Feb 2012 when the same stock went up 114% and then underwent a correction of 78.6%. This time too, after a move of 50%, I feel a correction of at least 61.8%, a Fibonacci ratio, is called for. The 61.8% correction will be completed at 375. That means a downward movement of Rs.42 (10%) from the current level of 417. Whether to stay away or to stay short - your call.

Attached above is the daily chart of Karnataka Bank. As seen from the chart, an inverted hammer formation on the top followed by a red candle signifies that the uptrend may have come to an end. And what an uptrend it was - a rise from 78 to 138 in six weeks, another big increase of 78%. And as I said before, a big move is followed by a big correction. In this case a 61.8% decline would mean the stock could come down to 101 whereas a 78.6% correction would translate into a level of 91. I see some good support for Karnataka Bank between 100-102 adding to the fact that 100 is a psychological support too and would expect the stock to come to 101, at least.

Andhra Bank's daily chart is seen above. An 8 month old trendline tested 4 times in the past was broken through but could not be sustained and today it came back below the trendline. In the process Andhra Bank has also made a pattern, which could be referred to as a double top, was also formed but would be confirmed below 105. A target for this double top formation would be close to 95 and I expect support to come in between the 93-95 levels.

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No Change in Chart Patterns - Wait and Watch

Not much change in the Nifty chart patterns today. The Nifty traded in a very narrow range today - a total movement of only 33 points between the high and the low - not even a movement of 1% during the day. After a whole day of trading, the Nifty managed to close in the green but did not make any change in the chart patterns. Individual stocks, however, showed some interesting movements, some of which have been analysed below.

Attached above is the daily chart of Nifty. As seen above, the chart looks exactly similar to the one shown yesterday, except for the last blue candle seen today. Today, as seen, was a narrow range day and also a harami, which after an upmove signifies that a short term reversal may be coming. So, nothing much to comment there on the Nifty and our view still remains the same that it should come down to the trendline before we think of buying again.

Attached above is the daily chart of Ambuja Cements which showed a decent increase today. As seen from the chart, the price came near the trendline which was providing support near 200. The stock made a low of 201 today and reversed from there and made a high of 207 before ending the day at 206.10. This candle signifies that the short term downtrend in Ambuja may have ended for now. It may be a low-risk buy at the current levels with a stop loss of 195 and a target of between 220-225 can be expected in the coming days.

Pasted above is the daily chart of Sun TV which showed a big downward movement of more than 6% today and closed the day at 343.45 against yesterday's close of 356.60. This movement comes after a small double top formation which will be confirmed below 338. Also seen on the chart are the RSI and stochastics indicators which show a bearish divergence along with the corresponding highs on the price chart. I expect Sun TV to move down to the trendline between 323-325 before any fresh buying opportunities may exist.

On the daily chart of Havell's, as seen above, a large candle showing a downwards movement, and the kind of pattern seen seems to suggest that there is more to come. The stock may find some support between 607-610 but eventually will have to break that support and may go right up down to the trendline to find support between 550-560. Stay short on Havell's below 600.

This is a pattern which I love to see, as seen on the daily chart of Oriental Bank above. This is called a Flag pattern and is so called because it looks like a flag, as can be seen from the trendlines drawn. A flag pattern is a continuation pattern and the confirmation of this pattern on the OBC chart means that the stock may continue to go up and it may have a target of 350-355 on the upside in the days to come. The only thing that scares me is the bearish divergence seen in both the RSI and the stochastics.

Seen above is the daily chart of IRB. As seen from the chart, the price of IRB showed a big downwards movement today closing Rs.22 in the red at 119, a movement of over 15% in a single day. Not only did it show a big red candle, it also closed below the good support of the trendline at 123. It now has a target of between 85-90 in the coming days. It may either go there directly or it may show a bounce-back back to the trendline at 123 in next 2-3 days. The RSI also going below 40 signifies that there is no support expected near the trendline at 123.

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Downward Move Starts

The Nifty opened stronger about 30 points up on Friday but heavy selling to the tune of Rs.650 crores by Emkay Global on behalf of an institutional client led the Nifty to touch a low of 4888.20, down 899.40 points (more than 15%) below the previous close. It is said that the quantities entered by Emkay Global were erroneous and that’s what sent the Nifty into a diving spree. You can read the complete story here. Such lows/highs made by the indices and stocks due to erroneous trades should be ignored and that’s what we are going to do today. Ignore the lows. But the fact that institutions are prepared to sell worth Rs.650 crores indicates that smart money may be getting out soon. 

Attached above is the daily chart of Nifty and shows that on Friday the body of the candle completely shadows the previous day’s candle and has formed a bearish engulfing pattern. Ignoring the freak low made by the Nifty, the close itself was about 40 points lower than the previous day. This is fully in conformation to our previous view that a correction may be on the cards and that it is a time to remain cautious. As mentioned earlier, a downward move at this stage may take us to levels of 5400 or thereabouts. However, there may be minor supports inbetween at 5695, 5645, 5535 and 5435. The Nifty may go down all the way to 5400 or find support at one of these levels. 5435 looks the most probable to me at this stage but we’ll just let the market decide as to how low it wants to go. 

Attached above is the daily chart of HDFC Ltd. As seen from the chart, HDFC prices lost ground on Friday losing almost Rs.40 in a day. This downward move not only brought the price closer to the trendline, but also has shown a bearish candlestick pattern, which suggests that further downside may be there and the prices may not find support near the trendline. This view is confirmed by the MACD and RSI, both of which show a bearish divergence with the price. HDFC has shown the weakest closing since 9/11 (11th Sep 2012, I mean), the last one month. I would suggest a sell on the scrip once the trendline is broken near 740-742 with a stop loss of 775. One could expect a first target of 691 and you could continue the sell position for a second target between 660-665. 

Attached above is the daily chart of Gold alongwith my favourite choices of indicators, namely the RSI and the slow stochastics. Another one of my favourites, the trendline is also plotted on the chart. As shown here, Gold has been in an uptrend since the beginning of the chart, with regular corrections inbetween and now, after a deep correction, it has come very close to its trendline which tells us that we may be close to an intermediate term bottom. Also supporting it is the slow stochastics which is now moving below 20. By measuring the Fibonacci retracement of the rise from 30098 on 7th Aug 2012 to 32783 on 13th Sep 2012, it was found that the 61.8% retracement level is at 31105 and that is where Gold seems to have found support. Some possible scenarios that come to mind is that Gold may go down one more day next week to touch the trendline (between 30850-30900) and then rise again. The second possible scenario seems to be that Gold may hover at the current levels for the next few days and wait for the trendline to come and touch the prices. And the third possible scenario, and maybe the most probable one that Gold may start rising from here itself since it has started showing a series of reversal candlestick patterns on the charts. 4th Oct 2012 saw the formation of a bullish hammer while 5th Oct saw the formation of a harami. I would be a buyer in Gold with a stop loss below 30700 and wait for targets of 32000 and above. 

An interesting fact to note is that in the international markets, Gold has risen almost $50 from 13th Sep 2012 from $1730 to $1780, a rise of 2.9%. In the Indian markets, however, Gold has fallen from 32783 to a low of 31041 during this period, a fall of over 5%. You must be wondering, why this disparity and shouldn’t Gold be trying to play catch up now? Well, not exactly, because the US Dollar in this period has fallen from 55.375 to 52.115, a fall of over 6%. So, even though, in dollar terms Gold has gone up and in rupee terms, it has come down, it can be safely attributed to the falling dollar. Now comes the tricky part. Gold may be in for a bit of a correction (downwards) in the international markets in the coming days, and so will be the dollar (upwards). If both happen simultaneously, nothing much is going to happen in Gold in India. If Gold falls and so does the dollar, Gold in India may go down further. If the dollar starts improving and Gold continues to go up, we may be in for a sharp recovery. In this light, I wouldn’t go about keeping targets of 33000 and above but be more realistic and will probably book my profits near the 32000 levels. In rupee terms, frankly, I don’t see an extremely bright Diwali for Gold but a slightly moderate one. 

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Weakness Still Seen on Nifty... Time to Remain Cautious

The Nifty on Friday opened with a gap up opening and never looked back. After opening at 5684 and went up to make a high of 5735 at around 10:30 and after that it was all a consistent slow and steady downtrend for the index. It finally closed at 5703 to close about 54 points in the green but about 30 points off its high. Considering that the opening itself was 35 points up, closing 54 points up does not show any significant strength.

Attached above is the daily chart of Nifty. As suggested on Thursday, the Nifty was waiting for a correction and weakness is already visible on the charts as a bearish divergence was there between the price and the RSI. But a correction was not what the market wanted. The market wanted to deceive some more buyers before going down again. While the Nifty has gone up today, it is still not showing strength. The divergence may continue one more time. But it is at these times that the buyers need to remain cautious. Every rise in the Nifty should be used as a selling opportunity.

Seen above is the daily chart of Nickel on MCX. As can be seen from the downward sloping yellow trendline, Nickel has never crossed 980 since March of this year completing 7 months now below that trendline. Notice that all this while the RSI has never gone past 60 except in the end of August which was really the first sign that Nickel is back in an uptrend. September finally saw Nickel prices go above the 7 month old trendline but overall it was a rangebound month for Nickel. The prices have remained above the trendline, yet finding significant resistance at 980. The RSI, however, is showing no signs of weakening and is showing a lot of strength till now. Looking at the pattern and the previous moves that Nickel has made, it seems that the moment 980 is broken through, Nickel is looking good for a target of 1030-1035. A stop loss of 930 should be maintained for this purpose. 

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A Correction on the Cards

The Nifty closed a quarter of a percent down today losing about 14 points from its previous value. After a reasonably decent opening at 5673, it continued to move up in the morning trades to make a high of 5693 before noon. It remained in the positive till about 2 in the afternoon when the bears took over and pushed it into the negative territory. A last ditch effort to remain in the positive came in the late afternoon trades but could not sustain and the Nifty closed at 5649.50, 14 points in the red.

Attached above is the daily chart of Nifty. Shown on the chart is a trendline sloping upwards connecting the early June, late July and early September lows. Also shown on the chart are two indicators, the MACD and the RSI. Another line is shown connecting the last two most recent highs and a corresponding highs made by the RSI in the same period. As can be seen from the charts, the Nifty made a higher high while the RSI failed to do so in the corresponding period, thus showing a bearish divergence. The RSI has turned downwards and has just penetrated its 9-period signal line, indicating a sell, albeit mild. In the last 20 days, the Nifty has gained almost 500 points without any major correction, a gain of almost 10%. At this stage, a correction is long overdue and signs of weakness are already visible on the charts. A downward correction may take the Nifty back to the upward sloping trendline which could provide support to the Nifty close to the 5400 levels. A steeper downward move could take the Nifty down to the dashed blue line which lies at 5360. This is the line which has provided support to the Nifty once and resistance to it 6 times in the last 9-10 months, a very significant support indeed. So, till we get to that point, it's just a sell on rise market and when we get to 5400 nearabouts it's going to be converted into a buy on dips market.

Seen above is the daily chart of Silver. Silver in the last 45 days itself has shown a rise of almost 12000 points, a rise of almost over 20%. By the looks of it, and using the Elliott Wave Principle, I think we have just entered wave 4 of this uptrend. And if this is a wave 4 then I would expect that the correction would not be very deep (maximum 38%). Secondly, according to the rules, wave 4 should not enter the price territory of wave 1 and the highest point of wave 1 was 56337 and we are a long way from there. A 38.2% retracement, as shown can bring Silver down to 60142. The 23.6% retracement level lies at 62255 and the last 3-4 days, even though have shown a spike below that level but never has Silver closed below it in this correction. This suggests that this 62255 may be a tough level to break. The two consecutive green candles in the last two days show that the price is ready to move up again. An upmove from this point may see Silver finding resistance near 64000 levels and if it crosses that, it can go right past the previous high of 65670 too and my next target for Silver then would be around 68000. But it all depends upon whether the wave 4 correction is complete yet or not. And believe me friends, only time and the markets can tell that, not mortals like you and me. All in all, by the evidence that we've got till now, I would be a seller in Nifty and a buyer in Silver. 

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Nifty Displays Short Term Bullishness

I feel great pleasure in informing you, my readers, that today happens to be my 200th post on this blog. What Brian Lara has done 9 times, Don Bradman 12 times, Rahul Dravid 5 times, Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar 4 times each (a score of 200 and above), I have done once :-). It's nice to be in this elite club of 200 and above.

The Nifty opened with a downward gap of about 50 points consequent to bad American and Asian markets. After some initial hitches and an hour of range bound trading, it staged a good recovery to fill the gap with which it had opened but at 12:30pm it started the southward journey once again and this time it was a consistent fall. A little bit of recovery in the last 30 minutes made the Nifty end the day with a loss of 68 points and the BSE Sensex closed 238 points in the red. In the international scene, as the things stand now (at the time of writing), crude, after making a low at $101.50, is now trading close to $102.50, FTSE closed about 50 points down, while Dow Jones is about 90 points in the green after a loss of 280 points yesterday.

Seen above is the 30 minutes chart of the Nifty. Along with the prices, at the bottom is shown the stochastics oscillator. As can be seen from the chart, the Nifty opened the day with a huge upward gap on 8th Sep 2008. This gap up opening was fully closed/filled today and it was then that the recovery came about in the last 30 minutes. Also shown on the chart is a small trading range within which the prices are moving for the last six days. This range is between 4340 and 4520. A move outside this range will give us a tradeable move in the short term. A trendline in black color has also been drawn on the chart connecting the pivot lows formed from 28th of last month till date. If one looks at the stochastics oscillator, one can see that a buy signal was given today in the last 30 minutes when the %K line (red) crossed the %D line (black) upwards, which is again a short term bullish sign. So, it makes sense to buy Nifty or Nifty calls for the short term with a stop loss of 4380.

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Multiple Supports For Nifty Between 4330 and 4380

The Nifty went down the fourth day in a row today. That was what this column had been expecting since 6th Aug 2008. To read the analysis of the past few days, you can read the newsletters for 6th Aug 2008, 7th Aug 2008, 11th Aug 2008 and 12th Aug 2008. All this prediction about the fall was made while the market remained in a narrow range and before the actual fall started. Now it has been 4 days into the fall and there are signs of support coming in.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, there are supports available on the 30 minutes and 60 minutes charts between 4330 and 4350 and on the daily charts near the neckline of the head and shoulders pattern, which could be anywhere between 4330 and 4400. Seen above is the daily chart for Nifty. This chart has three new trendlines drawn and all of them suggest support just below today’s low of 4379. With so many supports available between the 4330 and 4380 levels, there is quite a possibility that this support may hold. In case it does hold, and the Nifty crosses today’s high of 4448, we should become buyers. In case we encounter weakness tomorrow and the Nifty comes below 4330, we are looking at more downside which may (or may not) find support near 4200. Looking at the Relative Strength Index (RSI) also, it can be seen that there is support for it too near the trendline. Despite a fall of 270 points in the Nifty, which works out to roughly 6% fall in the index, the RSI has fallen from 64 to 50 only.

Since so many supports are available at 4330, we should assume that this support is likely to hold. And if it is broken, it will be quite significant for the markets and while the next support is available near 4200, even that may not hold. What the markets actually decide to do is for the market to decide. For tomorrow (today) the plan should be to go long above 4450 and go short below 4330.

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Moody May Downgrade India, Nifty Remains Subdued

It was again a very busy evening for me and I could not devote much time to write and analyse the markets and the charts. However, I feel guilty when I see that my blog generates almost an equal number of page views on days on which I have done no analysis and that all those visitors have to go back unsatisfied. That is why I make it a point to write something for my loyal readers. Today I have thrown in a daily chart of the Nifty with my comments on the chart itself. Please bear with it.

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Nifty Jumps as IAEA Approves Nuclear Deal

The Nifty, on Friday, opened weak and remained subdued for the first one hour. After a very narrow range on Thursday and with a breakout gap down opening on Friday, it seemed as if the downtrend would continue. However, the market had different things in its mind. Nobody knows what took up or why did the markets improve on Friday because soon after 11AM the markets reversed and since that time it was a virtually a unidirectional upmove for the markets till closing time. And this was despite the negative bias with which the Asian markets closed and the European markets opened. Despite all this negativity all over the world, what was it that was taking the Indian markets up, nobody knew. Later in the evening the news came out that the IAEA had approved the India specific safeguards agreement in the nuclear deal and that the deal would now go to NSG for sanction. The US has promised to get the NSG process expedited.

The daily chart of Nifty, as shown above, shows that after the narrow range day seen on Thursday, we saw a high volatility candle on Friday. This was to be expected, but what was not expected was that it would first give a false downside breakout and then change itself completely during the course of the day. Could it have happened that some market participants had come to know that the IAEA had approved the nuclear deal? It is quite possible since such things keep happening in the Indian markets and the world over that the smart money gets access to important market sensitive news much before the rest of the market does.

Anyways, now that the direction is clear, let us decide what to do tomorrow. Resistance is close by at 4450 (the closing was 4413), only 37 points away. But with the IAEA news now becoming public, that resistance should be broken through in the first one minute of trade. A move above 4450 will give us a sign that the market may now change its intermediate term trend to bullish since, then the prices would have gone above the downward sloping trendline seen in the chart above. But an actual confirmation of an intermediate term uptrend would come if the prices were to go above the previous high of 4540. All of us should be buyers above 4540, while persons with more risk taking capacity can plan to go long above 4450. I would suggest buying some Nifty calls having strike price of 4500 and 4900 for best results. With some luck we should be able to get them tomorrow early morning at Rs.135 and Rs.23 approximately.

It was a busy weekend for me and it is now late Sunday night. I would like to post this entry as early as possible so that then I could go and hit the sack. I will go into the details of why I am suggesting 4500 and 4900 calls tomorrow. I am also planning to discuss what the next target of Nifty should be after the change of trend is confirmed. Please keep looking at this space for regular and daily updates about the markets.

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Serial Blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad

After five days of excellent gains, the Nifty did cool down a little with two days in the red too. After a loss of 43 points on Thursday, it went on to lose 121 points on Friday. Nifty was trading within a narrow range of 30-40 points till about 1 PM. After that for the next hour or so it staged a good recovery and crossed the highs of the day. But at 2PM came the news that Bangalore was rocked with 7 bomb blasts in a space of 75 minutes which left 1 dead and eight injured. Thankfully, they were all low intensity blasts and were blasted more to create panic than to cause destruction. That news sent the market crashing down and the Nifty finally closed with a loss of 121 points at 4312.

Attached above is the 30 minutes chart of the Nifty with the Relative Strength Index (RSI) at the bottom. Also, on the chart, are an upward sloping trendline and a trend channel between 3800 and 4200. As seen from the chart, the upward sloping trendline is providing support to the prices at 4285. In case this support does not hold, the prices may come further down to the trend channel near 4180-4190. One reason why the prices should find support near the trendline is the RSI. The RSI, as can be seen within the thick brown circle, is finding support near 40. And the RSI finding support near 40 is bullish for the markets, at least in the short term. Three examples of the RSI finding support near 40 have been marked with the green circles and green arrows on this chart itself.

However, things look pretty bad. After 7 blasts in Bangalore on Friday, Ahmedabad was rocked with 16 bomb blasts in a span of 70 minutes leaving 45 dead and 145 injured. Apart from this there was a live bomb found in Bangalore, one in Ahmedabad’s Amraiwadi area and two cars with explosives were found in Surat. The blasts were claimed by a militant outfit calling itself Indian Mujahideen and they even threatened Mukesh Ambani with ‘horrifying memories which you will never forget’. This surely, could bring the markets down. And in case 4285 support is broken, that will then become a resistance. Even if support is found at 4285, there is resistance nearby at the downward sloping trendline near 4340.

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Pullback Starts, Nifty Closes 43 Points in the Red

The Nifty was just waiting for a negative trigger to fall. The Nifty opened about 60 points in the green and then throughout the day kept falling. What was the negative trigger early in the morning? Probably none. It did try to recover at about 11AM but did not succeed. Later in the afternoon European markets also opened weak and then our markets could not recover though it staged a recovery of about 30-40 points before closing. In spite of that recovery the Nifty closed 43 points in the red while the Sensex closed with a loss of 165 points.

Attached above is the daily chart of Nifty with two downward sloping trendlines, a rectangle between 3800 and 4200 and the RSI. The Nifty found resistance exactly at the second trendline (the one on top) as marked on the chart. That was where the resistance was expected. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) as marked in the brown circle shows that the RSI turned from a level of 60. This is not bullish for the markets. It also shows that we may not be completely out of the woods. According to me, the levels of the RSI give a very good indication about the markets. I feel markets are bullish when RSI goes above 60 and bearish below 40 and sideways between 40 and 60.

Okay, a pullback is coming. Where is this pullback going to stop? When do I buy? Frankly, we do not know where the pullback will end. The markets shall decide that. We shall follow the markets and will position ourselves to buy when the pullback is over. We can try and analyse where the support levels are. The first support is near 4310, the second one is the top of the rectangle, i.e. 4200, the third at 4000 and finally at 3800. We don’t know where it will find support but we shall buy when the market rises for two days in a row but only if the low of the pullback is above the previous low of 3800. Keep reading this space everyday and we shall know when the pullback is over and what is the most opportune time to buy.

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Short Term Uptrend Above 4105

Yesterday the Nifty had gone up almost 200 points but all those gains were washed away today at one point but finally in the mid afternoon session the Nifty did move up a little. In the end it closed 167 points down from yesterday’s close and only 29 points above Tuesday’s close. A total range of 259 points in 3 days but only 29 points up! Yesterday we had suggested that the Nifty, if it were to cross above its resistance line would go up but the Nifty decided to turn around from there rather than to go up.

Before I go into today’s analysis, I would like to take some advice from my readers. Dear readers, I have decided to shift. No, I’m not shifting my office or my home, I’m only shifting my blog. I know I would be losing all the Google juice and my page rank but once you have decided upon something, one should move on. Right now I’m in the process of building up the template and transferring data and widgets and am planning to give it a similar look with similar content. I would like your opinion on the new site as regards the content, presentation, theme or if any additions/subtractions should be done on the new site. It will be easier to incorporate all those things that you want while I am still in the process of building up, than it would be to do later. So, please leave your suggestions in the comments section and let me know. I would be looking forward to your comments.

Attached is the 30 minutes chart of the Nifty which shows the inability of the Nifty to cross its resistance line. According to the dictionary, a trend is defined as the general direction in which something tends to move. With the markets it sometimes becomes difficult to determine whether the prices are moving up or moving down. In the chart attached above one can see that in the last 10 days or so the trend is down since prices are moving down. But what about the last two days? Are we in an uptrend or in a downtrend? Has the trend changed to up? If not, when can we say that the trend has changed? Well, that is why we use trendlines. Trendlines are drawn by connecting two or more successive pivot highs in case of a downtrend and two or more successive pivot lows in case of an uptrend. When the prices breach the trendline, we say that the trend has reversed. But in some cases the trend continues in the same direction but only slows down a bit after crossing the trendline. Which is why we say that a confirmation of a reversal comes only when the price starts making higher highs and higher lows OR lower highs and lower lows, as the case may be.

In the chart above, as far as the trendlines are concerned we will come back into an uptrend if the Nifty were to go above 4040 and in a downtrend if it were to go below 3890. We can see that the Nifty has already made a higher low and as soon as a higher high is made, we will be back in an uptrend. A higher high would be made if the Nifty were to cross 4105, which has changed from 4325 since the most recent pivot high was formed yesterday at 4105. A downtrend would be confirmed if the Nifty were to go below today’s low of 3875, which happens to be the most recent pivot low. As to predicting what will happen, we shall let the market decide what it wants to do. But indications are positive. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) found support at 40 today and reversed from there which is a bullish sign. At the moment the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is trading about 75 points higher, crude is trading at about $144, which is off its highs near $145.80. And if Asian markets remain good in the morning, we can expect a positive opening. The only thing that worries me for tomorrow is the inflation figures which will be made public at noon. I’m expecting inflation to increase to around 11.6%. Anything more than that should be negative for the markets.

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How Low Can the Markets Stoop?

The Nifty opened today with a slight negative bias. It remained like that for the first couple of hours or so and then staged a seemingly smart recovery but again found resistance near the highs of the day and in the afternoon, probably, when the European markets started opening that we started coming down, and pretty heavily too. It was a, virtually, one way slide for the Nifty and finally it found support at 4564.50, again very close to our support which we had been predicting between 4500 and 4550. So, yesterday’s doji could not force a turnaround for the markets. The bears weighed much more than the doji.

Attached above is the daily chart of the Nifty. Some interesting things can be seen on this chart. First of all, our first support at 4630, the previous low formed in early April could not hold today and was broken through effortlessly. Secondly, a trendline which has been in place since August 2007 was also broken through today. This could be significant for the market. The only ray of light that we can see in this dark tunnel is the Jan and Mar lows. They could, only could, provide support to the Nifty between 4450 and 4470. Below 4450, we don’t know where the bottom is. It could be 4100 or 4200 or even lower. As of this moment, there is no strength seen in the markets. It is looking all gloomy right now.

I was trying to see if this trendline, which has been marked with the green arrow, was very significant or not. For that I had to see whether it extended back into time or not. And it was then that I came upon a very interesting disheartening chart, the weekly chart of the Nifty. And I was shocked to find that this same trendline had actually started in April 2005 and had provided support to the Nifty 8 times in the last three years. And if this three year long trendline is decisively broken, then it could be very very significant for the market.

This is disheartening in itself that the long term bullish trend could now be broken. But what are the implications? What is the target? Can we ask the market how low it can go? The answer may be visible in this chart itself. Attached below is the same weekly chart of Nifty but zoomed in to show the period from Feb 2007 onwards. Could this be called a bearish head and shoulders pattern? Well, I’m sure it can be. The neckline, of course, is not straight but it doesn’t have to be. There are head and shoulders pattern which work very well with slanting necklines too.

What is disheartening is the fact that the market is virtually shouting from the rooftops to exercise caution. It is telling us that it could stoop down shamelessly to levels which we cannot even think of. But, of course, only after this pattern is decisively broken. The dashed vertical line marked with the arrow shows that the high was close to 6300 when the neckline was near 4300, a difference of 2000 points. And if it is broken and the breakout is considered to be at 4600 then we are looking at a target of …. Hold your breath ….. 2600.

Can this pattern fail? Well, definitely it could. There have been various instances of head and shoulders patterns failing in the past. Uma could vouch for that. She has experienced three head and shoulders patterns failures in Reliance in a single day. Believe me, this is one occasion where I would really hope for this pattern in Nifty to fail. I have a lot of long term positions which I would have to sell in a loss if the Nifty were to go below the previous low at 4450.

After this chart and analysis, I can’t seem to get any more words out of my mouth fingers. All I can say right now is just the three golden words – EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION.

Happy Investing (if it still happens to be happy)!!!

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Nifty Reverses From Resistance

The Nifty was expected to go up today too and a target of 4990 was expected but it was mentioned that there is a fair bit of resistance between the 4935 and 4950 zone. That was exactly what happened today. It kept moving between 4920 and 4950 in the first half of the day before the bears took control and pushed the markets downwards. The crash was sudden and sharp but was expected. We also saw the end of the F&O (Futures and Options) month today.

Seen above is the 30 minutes chart of the Nifty. This chart has got 2 colours of trendlines – light green and dark green. The light green trendlines show why the Nifty found resistance near 4950 today. On the other hand, the dark green trendline shows where the support is – near 4830. You can notice how the last candle went all the way down to 4804 and then closed above our support at 4830. This small breakdown of prices below the trendline and then bouncing back above it does not signify a break of the trendline. A breakout or breakdown is significant if the prices penetrate the trendline decisively and with high volumes. It will usually be a large blue/red candle depending on which side it breaks out on. We still have support at 4830 and resistance at 4950. Tomorrow being the first day of the new F&O month, the market may, I repeat – may, stay within this range for sometime before moving below the 4830 trendline.

Looking at the bottom half of the chart, which happens to be the Relative Strength Index (RSI) of the Nifty, we can see that within the green rectangle the RSI found resistance at 60 and turned down from there and that does not give a very bullish sign. As of now the RSI has not broken the upward sloping trendline below it and that is the only thing which shall decide whether the Nifty will find support at 4830 or not. If the RSI holds on then the Nifty should also hold on to 4830 but if the RSI breaks through the trendline, I’m afraid, so will the Nifty.

More on Monday/Tuesday. Happy Investing!!!

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Target of 5300 Visible

The Nifty, on Friday opened in strength on Friday and remained range bound in a range of 40 points for a better part of the day and it was only in the afternoon session when the European markets opened that spurred a rally which took it past its highs of the day. A little bit of profit booking was seen near the end of the day which saw the Nifty losing about 15 points. On the whole, it was a green day with a gain of about 42 points.

As seen on this daily chart of Nifty, it has been rising since the last three days now and currently finds support at around 4950 and resistance near 5290. A move above 5290-5320 should be decisive for the markets. As seen from the charts, such a move will confirm a possible bullish head and shoulders pattern on the Nifty which could give us a target of around 6100. However, that is only a possibility and should not be acted upon till it happens. We cannot buy now on the assumption that a bullish head and shoulders pattern will be made. It is also quite possible that the market may go on to make another shoulder before actually crossing through 5300. One thing for sure is that we are in a short term and intermediate term uptrend (not to forget, that the long term uptrend was never broken) and that any dip in the markets should be used as a buying opportunity. Also shown in the chart is the 14 day directional movement ADX indicator which is currently around 18. A value below 20-25 suggests that the market may be going into or is currently in a sideways movement and it is not wise to take a position till the ADX crosses 25 or is at least 4 points above its previous lows. A move above 35-40 suggests that the trend may come to an end or slow down soon. A move above 5300 may probably also make the ADX go above 25.

The global signals are pretty positive today. The Asian markets were good on Monday and at the time of writing the Dow Jones is about a percent up i.e. 130 points in the green while the FTSE-100 closed 85 points up with a gain of about 1.3%.

I thought it might make some sense to look at the chart of Dow Jones also. As discussed in an earlier issue, the 9 month old trendline and the top of a 4 month old rectangle near 12740 was crucial and a cross above that would give us a target of 13700. This resistance was crossed on 21st Apr 2008 and has since gone through a pullback too and is now inching its way up. The downward sloping trendline at 13010 is providing resistance but at this moment, the Dow Jones is trading at 13132, much higher than this trendline. If it manages to close above this level (still about 3 hours of trading left in the day) today, it is on its way up to 13730 and then 14650. A close above 13010 will signify the end of the intermediate term downtrend in the Dow too.

Seen above is the daily chart of Aban Offshore and on it are seen three trendlines marked as 1, 2 and 3. Let us discuss each one in detail. The first trendline marked as 1 is the downward sloping trendline from the highs made on 29th Feb 2008 and Friday’s price movement confirmed that this trendline was broken. The second trendline, marked as 2, shows that the price has been finding resistance whenever it went to 4000 since 23rd Jan 2008, except for two exceptional days in February. The price did go above this trendline on Friday but closed well below it. The third trendline, the dashed one marked as 3, is an extended trendline starting from the lows made on 19th Mar 2007 (not shown on this chart). This trendline has been respected throughout except for the two areas marked by circles. A break of these three trendlines will be significant for Aban Offshore and the high volumes on Friday along with a large blue candle seems to suggest that this may soon be a reality. It may make sense to buy above 4000 with a stop loss of 3500 for a medium term target of around 5170.

Steel Authority (SAIL), if it manages to go past the trendline marked 1 on its daily charts would suggest an uptrend in the stock, which could take it to the next resistance near the trendline marked 2. The large blue candle with huge volumes on Friday seems to suggest that the price could go past this trendline on Tuesday. Consider buying above with a stop loss of 165 for a target of between 215 and 220. Revise the stop loss to 190 if the low is above 190 for two consecutive days.

Happy Investing!!!

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Support Found, Double Bottom Possible

So, the global cues didn’t seem to matter today. Dow Jones was marginally down, Asia was mixed. Our markets bounced back from the technical support levels and kept going up through the day. Even in the last 30 minutes it just lost about 10 odd points. No big profit booking or selling on rallies seen.

I have got a very interesting 30 minutes chart of the Nifty today. As seen from the thick green lines, the Nifty seems to be making a double bottom pattern which is also known as a ‘W’ pattern with the neckline at 5065 as shown by the dashed green line. This means that this double bottom pattern will be confirmed if, and only if, Nifty were to go above 5065. If this were to happen then the next target on the Nifty will be 5180. But, that is not all that there is to it. There is another downward sloping trendline which might (and probably did today) provide resistance to Nifty. We will assume this resistance to have crossed if the Nifty were to go above 5030 tomorrow. Luckily, it is not very far from the current levels. Just about 20 points away. On the downside support is at the same levels, between 4910 and 4930.

Ranbaxy has been inching upwards within this 50-60 points wide channel since the last three months. An interesting observation that can be made from this chart is that the channel may be rising but the RSI has been making lower highs during the same period, thus showing a negative divergence between the price and the RSI. This is bearish for the stock. I may have mentioned this before but a divergence has the same relationship with the prices that dark clouds have with rain. Dark clouds do not necessarily mean it will rain similarly a divergence does not necessarily mean that the prices will move in the direction expected, provided there is no break in the trendline. But as soon as the trendline is broken the price starts moving in the expected direction. This means that in this case, there is a slight weakness in the stock but it is not a sell, definitely not a short sell, until 465 is broken on the downside. Another negative sign that can be seen in this chart is that this time around, the prices failed to reach the top of the channel. When the prices are moving in a channel, they are expected to touch alternately the top and then the bottom of the channel. A failure to reach either the top or the bottom is known as a return line failure.

This is the daily chart of Tata Steel. It seems to have gone through a double resistance line between 850 and 860. One is a downward sloping trendline almost 7 months long and the other an upward sloping a month longer. The breakout comes with a large blue candle and that makes it all the more simpler for us to identify whether the breakout is genuine or not. I would have been happier with heavier volumes but today’s volumes were just a little better than average. Buy with a stop below 830 for a target near 1050.

Happy Investing!!!

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