CNBC-TV18's Head-Markets Research, Anuj Singhal - Bear Stearns has gone down under and literally so. This is the biggest casualty of the recent financial crisis in the US and one can feel the ripples across the globe with most markets down up to 4%. And it would be wishful thinking to hope that India would be spared. This morning already the SGX futures are suggesting a 200-point gap down for the Nifty.

Make no mistake; this is no longer a bull market correction. This is turning into a near-term bear market where rallies are being used to exit. Look at Friday for instance. While the Sensex was up over 400 points, we saw FIIs selling nearly $90 m. And this is not a one-off.  I can remember at least 5 recent instances where all up days have actually seen FII selling. That’s reiterating a point I have been making for last few days. The texture of this market has changed from buy on dips to sell on rallies.

Last week, I wrote about the trend of Nifty PCR coming down even with falling discount even on the days markets are up. Exactly the same thing happened on Friday. We saw Nifty futures actually turning into a premium but the PCR came down further to 0.92.

No levels are safe in a market like this and believe me you can take nothing form the F&O data for individual stocks. We are living by the day and will be doing that for some time to come.

Now all could change. But for that to happen, we need a big gallop of cash to swamp the markets, and that too from institutions. But at the moment, that looks like a dream.

DISCLAIMER: The author is not allowed to trade in equity markets including Futures and Options. His only exposure to capital markets is via shares of TV18 and Network18 granted to him as ESOPs by the company and investments in some long-term mutual funds.