The Sensex opened with confidence at 3111, a straight jump of 20 points over the close of the previous week. As speculators went accumulating, the index moved up to 3133 quickly. But the opening enthusiasm did not find follow up support and soon the Sensex moved down back to 3111 levels. It stayed there for most part of the day.

The listless trading finally resulted in the market dipping in the last one hour in a swift move to touch a low of 3081, where it closed. The reaction was spread over a large number of scrips in the Sensex list.

Heavy weights lost considerably, contributing to the Sensex's loss. BHEL continued to move down 2.32 per cent; HPCL is in reaction and lost 2.4 per cent; Hindalco lost steam and moved down 1.97 per cent. HLL moved down marginally by 0.17 per cent, only because it had already lost substantially last week. State Bank lost 0.76 per cent and evenGujarat Ambuja shed 1.96 per cent.

However, there were others which not only resisted the downslide, but moved up. Larsen & Toubro in fact posted a gain of 1.87 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra 0.51 per cent and BSES, expectedly moved up 0.94 per cent. The best performer was Arvind Mills which moved up by a hefty 2.91 per cent on top of all the gains that it has already got under its belt.

If Sensex did not go down further, it is due to SAIL, which moved up by 1.49 per cent and Reliance Industries which gained 2.01 per cent.The number of scrips in advance in BSE went up from 641 to 664; those in decline from 664 to 655. At the NSE the number of advances went up from 503 to 508 and those in decline went down from 451 to 447.

On the daily charts both the stochastic indicator and the RSI had pointed towards the likely reaction towards the end of last week by cutting through their trigger lines. At the end of Monday, the Sensex had slipped marginally through the 12 day's exponential moving average which was at3084. A break down through this level would be considered bearish.

Patternwise, 3084 has the potential to bounce Sensex off. If it does not hold then the next support would emerge at 3010. HLL and ITC hold the key to reversing the market.

Shot sellers should be quick footed to cover yourself as the market could bounce back.