It was a tug of war between the bulls and the bears at Dalal Street on Thursday, in which the former ones emerged victorious over the latter ones after a volatile trading session. Indian Benchmark indices snapped the five-day losing streak and managed to post mild gains at the end.
Global factors continue to dominate the domestic equity markets. A hope for Credit Suisse from the Switzerland Government improved the global sentiments. However, the overall sentiments for riskier assets remain jittered and traders will be looking at interest rate hikes by the US Fed next week.
For the day, the 30-share pack BSE Sensex advanced 78.94 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 57,634.84. NSE’s Nifty50 added 13.45 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 16,985.60. Broader markets underperformed the headline peers as BSE midcap and smallcap indices settled in red. Fear gauge eased slightly to 16.21-level.
The Nifty witnessed a sharp recovery and closed in the positive after falling for five consecutive days. It closed with marginal gains, more importantly it has taken support at the lower end of the downward sloping channel and bounced back with a long lower shadow indicating buying interest at lower levels, said Jatin Gedia, Technical Research Analyst, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.
“Considering that the Nifty has corrected 1000 points in the last six trading sessions it is appearing oversold and hence a relief rally appears highly probable over the next few trading sessions. On the upside the immediate hurdle stands at the 17,170 – 17,200 zone where resistance in the form of the hourly upper Bollinger band and the 40-hour exponential moving average is placed,” he said.
On a sectoral front, Nifty Metal index emerged as the top laggard, falling about 3 per cent. Nifty IT index and Nifty Private Bank indices were other losers for the day. Among the gainers, the Nifty Media index jumped more than 4 per cent, whereas Nifty Realty, FMCG and Pharma Indices added about a per cent each.
In the Nifty50 pack, Hindalco plunged more than 5 per cent, whereas Tata Steel declined over 3 per cent. IndusInd Bank and JSW Steel dropped 2 per cent each. HDFC Life Insurance, Bharti Airtel Ltd and Infosys Ltd declined a per cent each for the day.
Among the gainers, Bharat Petroleum Corporation was up more than 6 per cent. Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, Nestle India, Titan COmpany, and Bajaj Auto Ltd gained more than 2 per cent each. Sun Pharma, Britannia Industries and State Bank of India were among the top gainers.
With the turbulence at Credit Suisse and ahead of the ECB policy announcement, investors’ attention has switched to developments in the European market, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
“Consistently unfavorable signs in global markets are encouraging investors to move to safe havens such as the dollar and gold, while FIIs are withdrawing funds from the domestic market in response to the Indian rupee’s depreciation. Though the SVB and Credit Suisse crisis has eased, the market lacks the confidence to hold positions on contagion fears” he said.
A total of 3,640 shares were traded on BSE on Thursday, of which 2,135 settled lower. 1,392 stocks ended the session with gains, while 113 shares remained unchanged. A total of 145 shares hit their upper circuit, whereas 216 tested the lower circuit levels for the day.
In the broader markets, Samvardhana Motherson International plunged 11 per cent as its Japanese promoter company Sumitomo Wiring Systems, reportedly offloaded 3.4 per cent stake in the company on Thursday via a block deal. Brightcom Group was also down 10 per cent for the day.
On the contrary, Medplus Health Services jumped more than 10 per cent for the day, followed by a similar rise in Everest Kanto Cylinders. Zee Entertainment rose over 9 per cent as the company announced to repay $10 million to IndusInd Bank by Friday and the lender will withdraw its insolvency proceedings against the media company.
Also read: YES Bank shares slip below Rs 15 level, down 12% in seven days; here’s what analysts say
Also read: SRF, Welspun, Go Colors, Voltamp & Latent View: These 5 stocks see brokerage initiations