Slow down, weekend ahead!

Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why. - Eddie Cantor.

After sprinting in recent times, the indices seem to be embracing a range-bound zone. Nature’s fury continues on Japan as a powerful aftershock hit northeast Japan last night. Stocks in Japan and other Asian markets have shrugged off the latest bad news emanating from Japan as there has been no major damage.



Even US indices closed off intraday lows. European benchmarks fell after the ECB hiked rates by 25 bps and Portugal appeared all set to get EU financial aid.

Back home, we expect a cautious start and perhaps another day of consolidation for the Large-Caps. The spotlight will be on small-caps and mid-caps, which you need to think more than twice before placing your bets on them. Volumes have been tepid and could remain so today as well. Stock specific action will continue.

The Nifty has a strong support at around 5870 and we expect it to resume its upward trend after testing it. Meanwhile, FII inflows seem to be losing steam. Expect the market to cool off a little more if this trend persists.

In other news, food inflation has inched lower. Anna Hazare’s agitation is drawing a lot of attention. Gold has hit another record high. Silver is at three-decade peak. Nymex crude oil topped $110 per barrel mark.

FIIs were net buyers of Rs 2.2bn in the cash segment on Thursday, according to the provisional NSE data. The domestic institutional institutions (DIIs) were net sellers at Rs 2.12bn on the same day. In the F&O segment, the foreign funds were net sellers at Rs 3.06bn. The foreign funds were net buyers of Rs 7.16bn on Wednesday, as per the SEBI data. Mutual Funds were net sellers of Rs 2.02bn on the same day.