Sensex opened on a subdued note at 3108, some two points down from the previous close of 3110. The high for the day at 3116 was lower than the previous high of 3119. The market reacted badly during the last one hour. The index posted an intra day low of 3053 and closed at 3055. In the process, it lost 55 points, day over day.

There could be several dimensions to today's reaction. At one level, operators might have taken into account the end of the year cum the new year day on Friday. It could also well have been due to the tussle between bears and bulls; bulls might have decided to liquidate their position ahead of Friday.

We must also take notethat values had risen across the board briskly, starting at the 2850-level. One choice thereafter was either to continue to build on into the new year. In fact, this appeared to be the case as seen in market's behaviour on Wednesday. The other choice, of winding down positions could well have been due to compelling circumstances. At the time of this writing, I have not too much information to rely on.

Technically speaking, the stochastic indicator has cut through its trigger line. The index could now take support at 3067. If this does not hold then the next support level is at 3022. This would be the case if the reaction today had been triggered by a desire to rush to safeguard one's profits. But the serious fall in Reliance Industries and SBI point to other factors, which need to be investigated, beyond the domain of technical analysis. The 12 day exponential average is at 3022 and therefore, the uptrend should still be considered to be ongoing. Small investors should keep away from aggressive trading, asmarket is seeing unusual turbulence.