Bearish Vibes Persist

What the market giveth, it taketh away too. This was especially true for Indian stock markets last week as the Sensex shed 83 points to close at 3116.79.

It gave back most of the gains made during the previous week. What makes matters worse is that the Sensex is precariously close to the critical support level of 3100, from which it had rebounded on Friday.

The markets misbehaved last week. But this was upon the realisation that war in Iraq would last longer than anticipated. From the earlier prediction of a few days, experts are now talking of months. And this belies the hopes of investors and traders alike that the market had bottomed out.

Index heavyweight Hindustan Lever, for instance, is expected to remain weak owing to analysts' view that the company will post a poor March quarter performance.

Similarly, others that could remain under pressure include Infosys Technologies and Satyam Computer, since it is reported that their clients have slowed down in sanctioning new projects. The only saving grace in this otherwise glum scenario are banking stocks, which are expected to do well ahead of the Credit Policy.

Satyam Computer

Last week