Technical Analyst, Vijay Bhambwani:

The markets exhibited a range bound trade as the pre budget participation was truncated. The traded volumes were marginally higher as compared to the previous session, which is a routine indicator for an uptick session. The market breadth was positive as the BSE & NSE combined advance decline ratio was 2159 : 1654. The capitalisation of the breadth was positive as the BSE & NSE combined figures were Rs 13732 Crs : Rs 10233 Crs. That indicates mild optimism in the undertone.
 
The indices have closed in the upper end of the intraday range, with positive market internals and higher volumes. These are indications of mild buying and short covering. The Nifty 4450 levels (advocated as a trend determinator by me), remains as a critical threshold for the bulls. The intraday range specified for Thursday between the 4410 / 4270 has held as the Nifty bounced from the 4288 levels, thereby validating our wavecount.

The coming session is likely to witness a range of 4410 on advances above which the 4450 levels maybe likely, provided the ticket size per trade is higher and the rail budget cheers sentiments. Support is likely at 4290 on declines, below which the 4230 maybe likely. The bullish pivot for the session will be at the 4350 and the bearish pivot at the 4320 levels. Traders need to watch the activity beyond these thresholds respectively for intraday guidance.

The market internals indicate a higher turnover due to the intraday volatility. The number of trades were lower and the average ticket size per trade was higher, indicating a mild buying bias. The capitalisation of the market was higher in line with an uptick session.

The outlook for the markets today is that of caution as the weekend factor may curtail buying and the overseas cues cum budget may dampen optimism.

Disclosure: The analyst has no exposure to the scrips recommended above.