Thursday the pros' long got paid. On Sensex expiry the index settled at 77,928, a whisker under the 78,000 lid, and Nifty closed 24,317. The pin path from episode 92 played out almost to the point: hold 77,700, drift into the lid on IT strength, don't chase. Roughly a 4 out of 5. But the whole story of episode 93 is the catch underneath that green close.

Because this was not a broad rally. On the Nifty 50, twenty five stocks rose and twenty five fell, and the wider market was red, with the midcaps and smallcaps both lower. Autos carried it, up over 1.6 percent, with M&M up on a 34 percent jump in quarterly profit to 5,455 crore, Maruti, Tech Mahindra, Reliance and SBI helping. But realty fell over 2 percent, chemicals over 1, Adani Ports more than 3. The words the desks used were short covering and bargain hunting.

And the officia ...