But those who look far beyond the immediate can see a silver lining on the clouds that have enveloped the capital markets for the past year. The rise in Sensex, even though by a mere 5 points, has left the optimists enthused considering that in the past few years `moorat' trading has seen heavy selling.

"There seems to be a wait-and-watch approach, but what is heartening is that the market has not fallen much," said National Stock Exchange managing director RH Patil, who conducted an hour-long prayer meeting on Monday. His prayers seem to have paid off with the S&P CNX Nifty falling by just about 7 points.

For OTCEI managing director Joseph Bosco, it was a day of reckoning with the exchange successfully kicking-off its restructured operations with a turnover of a little less than a crore of rupees. "As many as 56 brokers logged on. Therewas no systems failure at all and thereis a lot of enthusiasm in the air," Bosco said.

According to Bombay Stock Exchange director and top broker Deena Mehta, the beginning of Samvat 2055 has been lacklustre and quiet. "Even while the prices of commodities like onions are touching new highs daily, the stock prices continue to remain lacklustre in the absence of demand," she said. Unless the industry shows signs of revival the secondary market's future looks gloomy.

Another BSE member Jayesh Sheth said the absence of institutional trade has been a prominent feature of today's moorat trading. "Technically the index looks poised for the downward level of 2,750 where we could expect a turnaround, provided the government intervenes with its infrastrutural spending activities," he said. "A conducive trading environment is required. Investors will only come forward provided the government takes firm steps to create such an environment where industrial revival will be the government's first priority. Immediategovernment action is what the market is looking forward to," he added.

BSE broker Ramesh S Damani said that moorat trading no more warrants any enthusiasm by local players. "In an atmosphere of anxiety and uncertainity, in regards the recovery of the economy, players prefer to be silent spectators. It is a known fact that moorat trading provides no indication of the sentiments as brokers only transact token trades as a custom, hence the direction of the index and the mood of the market can be guaged depending on Tuesday's trades and the index movement," he said.

WoodStock Broking chief of dealing Arun Kejriwal said the conventional practice of the dominant Gujarati broking community has been to sell and make money on moorat trading. "History shows that on the day of Moorat trading, the index falls on account of profit booking and absence of large scale institutional participation. It is heartening that this community did not appear to be selling too much on Monday. On the whole there was a wait and watchattitude," he said.

Brokers at large referred to the `mandi phase' on the local bourses, which accounted for a near lacklustre trade.

Earlier, moorat trading marked the opening of a new financial year for the brokers. However, for the past few years since the financial year has been changed to March 31, the day's significance has considerably reduced.

Brokers also expressed their anxiety in terms of the huge redemptions that could flow into the bourses on account of FII sales around December. Although, for the past three years the market discounted huge sales pressed by FIIs purely on account of the supportive role played by UTI, this year market participants seem to be uncertain about the role which the trust could play to salvage the market. The market at large seems to have pitched their hopes around the government's role in infrastructure spending.