New Delhi, Sept. 14 -- Ticker is a weekly newsletter by Vijay L. Bhambwani. Subscribe to Mint's newsletters to get them directly in your email inbox.

Dear Reader,

Last week I wrote that bullish efforts were falling short and were inadequate to sustain a convincing upthrust. The markets rallied however and it may appear that my statistical hypothesis may be off the mark. However, the data has not changed much and the rally does appear to be powered by fumes rather than solid fuel. While the headline indices rose, retail participation levels were noticeably subdued. The week-on-week index futures turnover recorded a 27.97% fall and the market-wide stock futures turnover was 2.02% down. That raises the probability of a high degree of short...