Should you buy the dip in Persistent, Coforge shares? Anand James says wait a bit

Geojit Financial Services, said both stocks have yet to show signs of bottoming out or bearish exhaustion, with downside momentum continuing to dominate.

Edited excerpts from a chat on how to trade both these stocks as well as Nifty in the week ahead:

The market has begun FY26 on a rough note, with the Nifty ending 2.6% lower in the first week of April. Do you see more downside ahead, and what are the key levels to watch at this stage?

Throughout last week, we had 21,800 in our crosshairs but refrained from attaching a high probability to it each day. Instead, we felt the 23,050–22,960 or the 22,750–22,522 bands would defend against sharp declines. We also took cues from the fact that the VIX remained muted despite the drop, rising just 1.1% to close at 13.75 on a day when the Nifty fell 1.49%. In short, the present structure has barely priced in a collapse.

The overnight slump in US markets is likely to scythe through this setup on Monday. But beyond the immediate anxiety around how to deal with the start of the week, the key question is whether we need to brace for a Covid-like event—one where the decline is dramatic both in terms of magnitude and the speed at which it unfolds. In such a scenario, we could eye 20,200–19,800 as the initial downside objective.

However, unlike the months leading to the Covid breakdown—which saw a sustained period of sideways trade suggesting exhaustion—we are now six months and 15% removed from the peak, a period marked by multiple sizable swings on both sides. This suggests that