Bulls hold the fort amid high volatility. Here’s how markets are likely to trade on Friday

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Domestic equity markets continued their upward march on Wednesday, the weekly derivatives expiry day, following the jump seen in global markets.

Benchmark indices ended higher for the third consecutive session. The S&P BSE Sensex ended 254 points higher 51,279 points up 0.50% on Wednesday. The Nifty index rose 76 points to close at 15,174.

The broader markets performed better. The Nifty Midcap 100 index and the Nifty Smallcap100 rose by 0.82% and 1.39%, respectively.

After the highly volatile session India VIX cooled off as it dropped 7.7% to sit below 21 levels.

Among sectors, Nifty IT, Nifty Metal and Nifty Pharma rallied the most over 1% each.

On the Nifty50 index, Eicher Motors, JSW Steel, Hindalco Industries, Tata Steel and Bajaj Finance were the top gainers, while SBI Life insurance, ONGC, IOC, HDFC Life Insurance and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the top index losers.

IT saw an all-round gains following Nasdaq surge and the Nifty IT ended higher by 2% on March 10.

Nifty Auto gained around a percent after the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) February retail sales data showed double-digit growth in passenger vehicle volumes.

Markets are shut on account of Mahashivratri holiday on March 11.

Here’s how experts see markets trading on Friday

Manish Shah, Founder, Niftytriggers.com

On Wednesday, Nifty settled in the positive territory, however, the much-needed momentum was missing. The pattern for the day was a small-bodied or almost a Doji sort of a candle. The contraction of volatility continues as momentum in Nifty seems to be lost. The underlying trend in Nifty remains up but what is missing is a momentum candle. The theme was uncertainty for the day, maybe it was due to a holiday on Thursday and traders do not want to take their positions home.

The directional movement system is in buy mode and the pattern on higher highs and higher lows remain intact. There are no reasons to believe that the Nifty is due for a decline till the time we have some confirmations in the price.

Nifty has broken out of a flag pattern. A break above 15,260 should propel Nifty to 15,430 and above that to 15,650. We hold the view that the Nifty will hit 15,650 before the end of the expiry.

Shrikant Chouhan, EVP, Equity Technical Research, Kotak Securities

The market closed at the level of 15170 and reached a high, however, traders were not keen to carry positions due to the bank holiday on Thursday.

Technically, the market closed above the level of 15,150/51,250, which could maintain the market’s bullish continuation. We may see at least 15,280 or 15,350 levels in the near term.

However, if the Nifty / Sensex fails to break the 15280 level, it may send the market to consolidation between 15000 and 15280. If the index goes below 15,000/50,750, the bullish trend will break. Bond yields and the dollar index would once again determine the market trend in the coming days.