Markets likely to consolidate

Equities are likely to consolidate on Monday. US markets closed flat with negative bias on Friday while Asian markets were trading higher this morning.

“We expect markets to consolidate ahead of corporate numbers. During the last ten trading sessions, the Sensex has climbed 1786.67 points or 11.52 per cent. Though the undertone remains bullish, we advise caution. Profit booking cannot be ruled out,” Networth Securities warns.

Vasant Joshi, technical analyst at Religare Securities feels the market is definitely headed upward, advising traders with a 3-4 month perspective to continue to hold and very short-term traders to use strict stop-losses.

“The momentum is still strong. There will be casual profit taking intraday, but I am looking at an upside to 5225 in Nifty and 17840 in Sensex,” he said.

Friday, National Stock Exchange’s Nifty closed at 5021.35, higher by 21 points or 0.42 per cent. Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex ended up 141 points or 0.82 per cent at 17,291.1, a new closing high.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of equity worth Rs 2,275.71 crore on Friday, while domestic instiutional investors net sold Rs 100.13 crore, according to provisional data on NSE.