Hi Diksha, do you suggest that I should use this dip to shift some of my holdings? Also, do you suggest buying any stock for 01 March?

On Friday, I had suggested to take profits on Coal India, Grasim and SAIL. However, due to the expected correction in markets, I had cautioned in these 3 cases not to rush in to sell. You must have got a very profitable exit in SAIL, but Coal India and Grasim, you must sell close to suggested levels and that could happen today. Hold on to rest of the positions and here is a quick dekko on where various positions stand.

Shilpa Medicare given at 460 (CMP- 370) – Hold at Averaged Price

Bectors Foods at Rs.549 (CMP-402) – Average at current price

Burger King at Rs.171 (CMP-142) – Suggest hold

RVNL at Rs.34 (CMP-32) – Suggest hold

HCL Tech at Rs.985 (CMP-911) – Suggest hold

Birlasoft at Rs.272 (CMP-227) – Suggest hold

Cadila Healthcare at Rs.473 (CMP-434) – Suggest hold

Hindustan Zinc at Rs.302 (CMP-296) – Suggest hold

Indraprastha Gas at Rs.568 (CMP-491) – Suggest hold

Apollo Tyres at Rs.235 (CMP-232) – Suggest hold

Bharti Airtel at Rs.568 (CMP-554) – Suggest hold

Let me now turn to your question on fresh buying. On the face of it, the market may look ideal to buy stocks but you should wait for the VIX or the volatility index to taper for the sake of greater conviction. VIX shot up in the last couple of weeks from a level of 21 to around 29 and that is typically a signal of froth building up in markets. That is indicative that this is still not a buy-on-dips market and lower levels are possible.

As I said earlier, in terms of fresh purchases, you should ideally look for two sets of confirmations. Firstly, the market must take support above 15,000 on Nifty and 50,000 on Sensex with volumes. Secondly, you can look for conviction support at lower levels of 14,200 on the Nifty. The best approach would be to wait for the VIX to decisively come down close to the 21-22 levels before initiating any concerted buying in the markets.