Thursday's breadth setback partly reversed today; the shrinkage in advancing stocks did not. The market remains Neutral — Fading. This is still a selective screening market, not a reason to broaden tomorrow's watchlist simply because the index is rising.
A bounce, not trend repair
More stocks participated today, but only 36.5% are above their 200-day average. Yearly lows exceeded highs for the 16th session. The five-session balance of basing-to-advancing moves against advancing-to-topping moves improved to minus 62 from minus 66. That is less deterioration, not an expanding pool of trends.
IT has the price move; Energy loses ground
The IT participation gap we flagged remains: its advancing share held at 21.8% despite today's sector-leading rally. IT Services & Consulting rose 4%, yet only 12.2% is advancing. Technology Hardware offers a different pocket, with 55.6% advancing and an 11.1-point expansion over 20 sessions.
Energy is tonight's turn. Its advancing share fell 3.5 percentage points from yesterday, erasing the 20-session expansion we had been following. It still has the highest sector participation, but the cushion has weakened. Financials continued to erode, slipping to 20.8% advancing from 21.5%. Paper Products bounced 0.8% without rebuilding its advancing share.
Keep fresh setups separate from stage exits
Sunflag Iron and Steel Co leads the early-stage setup list with a score of 8.8 out of 10, followed by Alicon Castalloy at 8.4. Indo Amines follows at 7.9. These are chart-review candidates, not confirmation that the wider market has repaired.
The exits deserve equal attention: JSW Steel, Piramal Finance, Gabriel India and Anant Raj moved from advancing to topping tonight. KPR Mill and Apollo Micro Systems returned from topping to advancing, while Electrosteel Castings moved out of basing. For tomorrow's preparation, separate those stage changes from setup quality rather than treating every return to Stage 2 as a ready setup.
| Stock | Sector | Setup | % 1D |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunflag Iron and Steel Co Ltd | Materials | 8.8 | +1.6% |
| Alicon Castalloy Ltd | Consumer Discretionary | 8.4 | -1.1% |
| Indo Amines Ltd | Materials | 7.9 | -1.8% |
| Lloyds Engineering Works Ltd | Industrials | 7.8 | +5.4% |
| Arfin India Ltd | Materials | 7.8 | -1.3% |
| Tega Industries Ltd | Industrials | 7.4 | +1.8% |
| One MobiKwik Systems Ltd | Financials | 7.4 | -1.2% |
| Jamna Auto Industries Ltd | Consumer Discretionary | 7.4 | -1.2% |
| Sector | 1D | 1M | 3M | RS | Stage 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Information Technology | +2.8% | +7.8% | +6.9% | 54 | 22% |
| Communication Services | +1.6% | +1.3% | +2.8% | 62 | 20% |
| Materials | +0.7% | -1.6% | -2.6% | 64 | 34% |
| Consumer Discretionary | +0.7% | -2.1% | +0.3% | 60 | 29% |
| Industrials | +0.1% | -0.9% | -2.5% | 65 | 25% |
| Financials | +0.1% | -0.9% | -5.5% | 59 | 21% |
| Real Estate | -0.0% | +1.2% | -5.8% | 55 | 16% |
| Health Care | -0.2% | -3.8% | -1.0% | 70 | 40% |
| Utilities | -0.2% | -2.2% | -10.5% | 54 | 10% |
| Consumer Staples | -0.3% | -1.3% | -5.4% | 48 | 30% |
| Energy | -0.4% | -2.8% | -7.1% | 55 | 52% |
Work the same data live: open the full stock screener, watch the live market dashboard, or check the market-timing read. New to the method? Start with the four stages.
Stage2Stocks is an educational stage-analysis screener. These wraps describe what the screen shows across NSE cash equities — they are not investment advice, recommendations, or buy/sell calls. Always do your own research.