The performance, thereafter, has more or less remained negative. Although the market remained weak, it did not break the 2,944-point level established on Thursday. Reliance made an unsuccessful attempt to move above the previous day's close.

A similar trend was witnessed at the ITC counter. Like Reliance, ITC too opened with a Rs 10 gap and closed at Rs 729.

Barring the pharmaceutical stocks, the performance of other pivotals was far from impressive. The only counter which managed to sustain buying was Tisco. It moved up to Rs 92. Another Tata stock, Tata Tea, also closed higher.ITC's failure to close higher was a negative signal and hints at a decline. Hindustan Lever is weak and is expected to continue this trend. The trend at the counter of StateBank is nothing but a copy of the Sensex.

It can also go in for gap-filling and may touch a level of Rs 157. Hindustan Petroleum, however, is the weakest among the heavyweights and appears attractive for shortselling. The position of Bhel, Bajaj Auto, Tisco, and Telco is comparatively better.

Overall, the outlook for the next two trading days is not very promising. The short-term oscillator (5-day RSI) has given a negative divergence. This is a sign of weakness if one considers the fact that the moving averages (12-day and 48-day) are in a negative phase. There are chances that the Sensex might go in for gap-filling. For this, it needs to fall to 2,890 points. The situation, thereafter, could be encouraging.

For traders, the current position suggests that they can wait at least for two days to take a long position. But at the same time, shortselling should be avoided. For those who are long, profit-booking would be a good idea as most of the stocks which have gone up in the past few days seem to havelost steam.

Stocks like Corporation Bank, Madras Cements, Hindustan Petroleum and L&T will continue to remain weak in the coming days. At the same time, stocks such as Finolex Cables, Hero Honda and Tisco will remain firm.