Nifty Futures Trading – Market Review – 17Nov2011

Following is the chart of Goldman Sachs Nifty ETF, which is traded on the NSE and BSE. This is the most active Nifty ETF, and serves as a reliable indicator for Nifty Futures Trading.

Since all global markets have been trading mostly on their technical support and resistance lines, this post shares my view on Nifty’s direction in the coming 1-2 months.

Ever since making a top at 6300 in Nov 2010, the Nifty has been trading unders a strong ceiling/resistance line, and given the various negative global cues, and less optimistic Indian economy, it seems unlikely that Nifty will break the resistance line in a hurry in the near future.

However, going by the previous attempts, Nifty should make an attempt for it at some point in the coming weeks. The momentary recent high of 5400 is insufficient as a genuine attempt to break the resistance, and I think there is 80% proability of Nifty going back to 5400 by end-December 2011 or early-Jan 2012. If Nifty falls from that attempt, then Nifty will promptly head towards 4700 levels, and may even break the previous lows.

So while Nifty has lost 6.5% in last 6 trading sessions, I am not selling, and actually looking at short term buying opportunities in select Nifty stocks (within our usual set comprising DLF, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Reliance). All these stocks have been oversold in the last 6 trading sessions.

But the broader market outside Nifty has collapsed in the last 6 sessions. Most mid-caps have fallen 30% in a market where there are no buyers and sellers are push prices lower with each sale. The only mid-cap stock we have bought in this fall is IFCI at Rs 26.5 (today), which is now trading at just P/E 2.8 and P/B 0.4, while having a dividend yield of 3.9%. The company promptly pays Rs 1 as dividend. This good value stock has been trashed badly, and we are long term investors in IFCI. If it falls to Rs 20, we will buy more. Investors with 18-24 months timeframe can buy IFCI at current prices for 100% gain on their purchase price. Traders should not buy any mid-caps below Nifty 5400.

A non-technical factor to keep in mind is that the year-end is approaching in the US, and Dec 31 is also the financial closing for most companies and funds in the US. December usually sees a market rally in the US, where fund managers try to move up the NAVs, and deal with problems afresh in January. This is also the reason why January is known to see immediate falls, because fund managers who want to sell their positions, take action in Janurary, right after the new year break.

Summary: While there is gloom in the Indian stock market currently, and Nifty seems to be on a losing streak, this one way fall maybe a good short-term buying opportunity into select Nifty stocks (mentioned above).

Best Wishes,
Shankar

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Indian Stock Market in 2011: Market Depth Analysis

The Indian Stock Market in 2011 has started with a big bang — on the downside. 6 of the last 10 January’s have had market-wide falls, and looks like we stuck to this long term pattern. We believe a lot of the negatives being talked about suddenly in last 7-8 weeks are not unique to India, however the Indian stock market (and Nifty) have fallen 15% from their recent highs despite global equity markets moving higher.

But the net selling has not been much — just about Rs 4000 crore, which is less than 0.001% of the Indian stock market capitalization of about Rs 75 lakh crore at recent highs, which is now at Rs 65 lakh crore. 15% market fall with just about 0.001% selling — just 1 share sold among 100,000 shares — indicates that the Indian market lacks depth; its dominated by traders who can’t hold stock for even 3-5% falls, and thus the selling cascade starts if one can somehow get the market down by 3-5%, the remaining 10% will come by itself as the weak trading hands look for escape at losses. Long term investors won’t sell their stocks at such market falls, though some maybe tempted to sell if the market remains below the 200 day moving average for a longer time.

Overall, not much has changed in the India growth story on the ground level; the focus on corruption and governance is actually a positive. The short sellers have got the market to a lower level, made good profits, and re-deploying those profits to buy the same stocks at low prices. This has also given us all attractive prices to buy for good gains by the second half of 2011. We continue to believe that 2011 will be a positive year for the Indian market, though its difficult to see given all the negativity around at this point.  We have been buyers of various Nifty stocks in this fall, and have not sold a single share.

Our top picks for 2011 are: Reliance Industries, Reliance Capital, Reliance Infrastructure, Larsen & Toubro, BHEL, Ranbaxy, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank and IFCI.

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FII DII Trading Trends in Indian Stock Market

Hello Folks,
Following are my notes on FII – DII Trading trends in the Indian stock market. The 2010 equities trading data is attached below. The following notes are for the “net” trading by FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors) and DIIs (Domestic Institutional Investors) as two groups. Please bear in mind that the numbers are aggregated, and its not about the trading trends by individual FIIs or DIIs.

FIIs are trusting folks (we know some of them) and they like India (their money flows speaks for itself); but they seem to get scared fast due to the last 2 years of global events, and exit in a rush to preserve their capital. Once their selling starts, its sets off a chain reaction of price falls, leading to relentless selling to exit before others; the market’s back breaks with just 5 days of selling. Any net FII selling over Rs 100 crore must be taken seriously, because it is likely to bring the cluster soon, either immediately, or with a few days gap. Within FIIs, the long term investors will be gainers but short term FII capital is always ready to leave at the first hint of trouble (flight capital). Continue reading

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Tata Investment Corporation

We believe Tata Investment Corporation is one of the best managed companies in India today, sharing the Tata group spirit of taking good care of shareholders. We have been observing the company’s work for the last one year, and recently initiated our long term investments in this company, and we have also recommended our network of investors to invest Tata Investment Corporation gradually over the next few weeks (to average out market price fluctuations) and hold for at least 3 years, ideally 5+ years.

As of 31 March 2010, the company’s total market value of quoted investments and estimated value of unquoted investments is about Rs 3638 crore, with investments in 197 companies (excluding mutual funds). The Company continues to invest in Tata and non-Tata companies, both in the listed and unlisted categories, though investments in Tata companies generally constitute a larger proportion and are of a longer term and strategic nature. Continue reading

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