On Tuesday the market had seen some profit booking and thereafter the market rose. However, traders seems to have thought it prudent to book profit on Wednesday only. The question now is whether the values move down a little more in the process of consolidation before they resume their upward journey.

The strong upmove in HLL with volumes clearly indicates that there is an investment cum speculative interest, which is quite strong. FIIs are bullish on software and consumer goods stocks. Value hunting is also corroborated by the quick reversal in Hindalco after Tuesday's slide.

Again notice the price rise in Novartis in the upper end, even though Glaxo could not exactly match the performance. Coming to informationtechnology stocks, Infosys held on to the gain posted on Tuesday, though NIIT slipped by 0.32 per cent. ITC too is retaining its foothold, posting a small gain of 0.35 per cent.

The refinery stocks put in a mixed performance. While there was profit taking in HPCL on reduced volume, the stochastic indicator is still in positive territory. Cochin Refineries made an improvement. While Indian Hotels came down, EIH gained. Asian Hotels posted an intra-day high by Rs 10. Bajaj Auto went down sharply but now it is quite close to Rs 537 from where it climbed up earlier on December 3. MTNL could easily illustrate the present market position. Another Rs 5 down it will attract speculators. What is true of MTNL is true of several others.

For the Sensex the daily stochastic is about to trigger a sell, but the longer term indicator RSI is positive in both the daily and the weekly chart. The 20-day moving average for Sensex is at 2887 and is rising. If the rise in HLL, ABB and Castrol are any indicators, the right wayto play stocks is by the merit of the individual scrips and not by the Sensex. The passing of the Insurance bill might change the sentiment.