The market opened with the Sensex at 3,907.75, slightly lower than the previous close of 3,908.48. It could post a gain of just 17 points to post an intra-day high of 3,924.42. This high was lower than the previous high of 3,943.16 by 19 points. That reveals that the operators were not unduly bullish for the day, which again is understandable as it was the last day for the NSE week.

The low for the week at 3,895.71 was 5 points higher, indicating that there were no severe overbought positions in the market. At close, the Sensex had gained 16 points to close at 3,924.42.

Despite the lukewarm gain in the index there has been significant improvement in select scrip prices. Arvind Mills moved up by 7.36 per cent atthe end of the consolidation phase. BHEL, which was languishing till now, picked up today to post a gain of 2.18 per cent. This indicates that the speculators are slowly getting over their cautious stance and are venturing out to invest once again. This was again signalled by BSES, which moved up by 2.34 per cent. Tisco was another indicator with an advance of 1.83 per cent.

The most remarkable thing about Tuesday's trading was the fact that the major Sensex heavyweights kicked off firmly from their starting blocks. HLL advanced by 1.29 per cent, Reliance Industries by 1.23 per cent and SAIL by 2.36 per cent. Even IPCL moved up by 1.6 per cent. All this goes to prove that there is much confidence in the market at current prices.

That being the case, Wednesday, which is the first day for the NSE week, could give a more firm push to stock prices.

Technically, there is no doubt that stock prices are in the oversold region. But despite that, they could not move up aggressively during the day, quite likelyfor want of FII support. One has to wait and watch if local players can keep up the game.