It was a subdued week on expected lines at the bourses. With a mid-week holiday on Wednesday, markets made a small uptick on Monday, then lost pre-holiday and continued to lose post the holiday as well. There were gains on one of the four trading sessions and losses on three. BSESENSEX lost 722.43 points or 0.86% to close at 83,216.28 points while NIFTY lost 229.80 points or 0.89% to close at 25,492.30 points. BANKNIFTY gained 100.45 points or 0.17%. The broader markets saw BSE100, BSE200, BSE500 lose 0.85%, 0.77% and 0.84% respectively. BSEMIDCAP lost 0.59% while BSESMALLCAP was down 1.53%. The top sectorial gainer was BSEBANKEX which was up 0.12% while the top loser was BSEPOWER down 3.44%. ,

The Indian Rupee gained 9 paisa or 0.10% to close at Rs 88.68 to the US Dollar. Dow Jones gained on two of the five trading sessions and lost on three. It was down 575.77 points or 1.21% to close at 46,987.10 points.

New IPO listings have continued their negative trend on listing day. Orkla India was yet another example of a company doing well during roadshows, having a positive premium throughout issue subscription and just before listing, and yet failing the last test. Against the issue price of Rs 730, the share opened at Rs 751.50, made a high of Rs 755, low of Rs 693.35 and closed at Rs 713.40 a loss of Rs 16.60. All prices are of BSE.  On Friday, the share lost further ground and closed at Rs 706.75, a loss of Rs 23.25 or 3.18%.

The other share to list on the main board was Studds Accessories Limited which had issued shares at Rs 585. The share opened at Rs 570, made a high at Rs 585, low at Rs 555.80 and closed at Rs 560.45. The loss was Rs 24.55 or 4.20%. Clearly showing that there is a big fatigue factor in the markets as far as primary issuances are concerned.

Shares of Lenskart Solutions Limited which had issued shares at Rs 402 will list on the bourses today. GMP has been quite wild in the share and has fallen from around Rs 135 levels to as low as Rs 2. Currently it trades at Rs 10. Irrespective of where the issue opens, this was a hotly debated issue in terms of valuations, promoter greed and various market participants commenting on their subscribing and not subscribing to the issue. Reasons were offered for both cases. These types of comments are new to the market place and tantamount to influencing investor participation.  Not sure how the regulator would look at this new trend as it seems a little tough to digest.

The IPO rush continues with Pine Labs Limited having opened on Friday.  EMMVEE Photovoltaic Power Limited would open on Tuesday and would be followed by Physicswallah Limited following and alsoopening on Tuesday. The rush to launch IPO just never seems to end.

USA seems to continue to have problems with tariffs. Supreme Court which is hearing the matter on the same seems to be caught in a bind with judges from both political parties seeming not to agree with the rational of Trump in imposing the tariffs and bringing world trade to a big mess. God knows, what the final outcome would be but things have become messy. The whole tariff situation is work in progress and extremely fluid.

Friday, results for Bihar elections would be announced and the exit poll outcome would be declared on Tuesday evening. There would be repercussions post these announcements.

The last week of results reporting has begun and would end on 15th of November. Bharti Airtel declared an excellent set of results, yet the price fell. Wonder whether the impact of primary markets is also being felt on secondary markets.

Coming to levels in the week ahead, expect markets to look for triggers which seem missing. Support exists at levels of 25,200-25,300 and lower down at levels of 24,600-24,800 points. On resistance, 26,000-26,150 is a tough nut to crack. God willing if it does happen we could see levels of around 26,500 points. The strategy would be continue intra-day trades as markets are currently looking for direction and clarity on the trade front. Until that happens it makes sense to lie low.

Trade cautiously. 

Arun Kejriwal (Market Veteran Investor & Opinion Maker)