Today, you see a bit of green on the screen. This week has been so terrible for the markets that even a little bit of green looks good on the screen. It was a bit of a volatile session, quiet on the volumes chart but a bit volatile. It just kept going up above 4,900 but the Nifty kept coming back below that. Till the last half hour, you weren’t even sure that we would close above 4900, and 16,500. We managed to do that in the last few minutes, thanks to some short covering and buying maybe in a few select largecap names.

But the broader markets still do not feel completely convinced and confident at the end of today’s trade, because the breadth has been pretty poor. You had about 300-350 advancing stocks to above 800 declining stocks. The breadth is not good.

The Midcap Index closed down 1.2% while the Smallcap Index closed down 1.7%. The boarder market hasn’t looked very good today. The Nifty has seen some short covering ahead of the market holiday tomorrow, even the bears didn’t want to keep their positions open.

In select pockets like ONGC, HDFC, ITC, Infosys, Satyam, TCS, Maruti, and Tata Steel there was some buying. That was the reason why the Nifty and Sensex didn’t look to bad at the end of the session. It has not been all good though for largecaps. Power has had yet another bad session. Tata Power, Reliance Energy, Suzlon, Reliance Power, and GVK Power from the entire power lot have lost quite a bit of a ground once again today. Unitech has had an average session, so real estate is still not bottoming out.

ICICI came off the lows of the day. It went to Rs 930 in the morning but managed to claw back to about Rs 970, but still ended in the red. Among midcaps there were more losers than gainers. Banks are still taking it on the chin since the Budget. They haven’t looked back, and most PSU banks have lost close to 20% since that big fall. Today, Bank of India led the fall. Then came Indian Bank, UCO Bank, Bank of Rajasthan, among others. All these stocks were down 5-7%, so that part of the story remains extremely shaky.

Fertilizers is another space which has lost quite some ground since the Budget. Nagarjuna and Chambal both were down sharply. Ispat had a bad session though SAIL and Tata Steel looked good.

Reliance Power is currently trading at Rs 375-380 levels. IDFC and Power Finance Corporation have fallen off today. Reliance Capital has also had a fall along with other brokerages. Sugar stocks have come off quite a bit.

It has not been a convincing day at all for the midcap or smallcap universe. A few stocks like Gujarat NRE Coke, SRF, and JP Associates saw some buying. But few and far between the breadth has not been convincing. Above 4,900 looks a whole lot better than 4,800 on the Nifty and the Sensex too has managed to claw back somewhat. Tomorrow of course the markets are shut.