CNBC-TV18's Head-Markets Research, Anuj Singhal: This market is now testing patience. It has now flattered to deceive for so long but has been in a tight range, give or take 200 points on the Nifty

The first 2 days of this week’s trade have been prime examples of this inconclusiveness. We had a surprise rally on Monday and an equally surprising minor pullback on Tuesday. The FII number for Tuesday is nothing to write home about while there was some buying from the DIIs. But the most conflicting signals have come from the options data.

On Monday when we had that surprise rally, we saw 5000 Call suddenly shedding Open Interest and on Tuesday, it was the turn of 4500 Put to shed Open Interest. These are really confusing signals and don’t give an iota of sense for market direction. Traders are not keeping their Nifty positions as that can be risky but we are beginning to see some interest coming to individual stocks, either on long or short side.

So we have stocks like Orchid and S Kumars, which have been marked for long trading and SAIL and BHEL for shorts. Of course BHEL saw some short covering on Tuesday but the other capital goods stocks looked weak. Few other stocks, which saw some action coming back, included Yes Bank, Ashok Leyland and HCC.
 
Today looks like another day of ranged trade for the Nifty but some individual stocks are building in enough excitement to keep the screen alive and buzzing. Orchid saw some slip in late trade despite the big rally, so would be interesting to see what happens here. 1 thing for sure, it will be among the top 3 traded counters. Also, what happens to BHEL? In the past, we have seen once a sector turns week, rallies get sold into and if BHEL was to recover some more, chances are it will be met by fresh shorting.

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.