The Indian benchmark equity indices, Sensex and Nifty ended marginally higher after a volatile trade on Tuesday led by gains in metals, pharma, and FMCG stocks. The S&P BSE Sensex index settled at 49,201 levels, up 42 points, or 0.09%, and the Nifty closed at 14,683 levels, up 46 points or 0.3%. In the intra-day deals, the indices had hit a low of 48,936 and 14,574, respectively.
Broader markets outperformed the benchmarks as the Nifty Smallcap100 and Nifty Midcap100 indices ended 1.35% and 0.91% higher, respectively.
Among sectoral indices, Nifty Bank ended in the red, followed by Nifty Media and Nifty PSU Banks, Nifty Private Bank index while others closed with gains.
Sectoral trends depicted that the market mood was defensive as the Nifty Pharma (up 2%), FMCG (1%), and Metal (1.5%) indices remained top gainers on the NSE today while the Nifty IT index was up 0.25%
Losses in heavyweights like RIL, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Power Grid, SBI, UltraTech Cement put a lid on gains while stocks such as Asian Paints, HDFC, HUL, TCS, Sun Pharma, Infosys, and Bharti Airtel tried to support the markets.
Here’s how experts see markets trading on Wednesday
Manish Shah, Founder, Niftytriggers.com
It was a flat trading day and the pattern play is in an inside day pattern that has the narrowest range of the last couple of days. Volatility is getting squeezed. We expect that volatility will sooner or later expand as volatility is the top frontline index can be lateral for a long period of time.
On Tuesday, Nifty moved within a range of 14,900 on the higher side to 14,500 on the lower side. On the lower time frame, the pattern in play is inverse head & shoulder. A break above 14,900 is needed for the market to move higher. If Nifty does resolve to move beyond 14900 expect an explosive move on the upside.
Gaurav Ratnaparkhi, Senior Technical Analyst, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.
In the case of Nifty, the bears maintained the pressure near 14,900-15,000 & hit hard as the index attempted to test that hurdle zone. As a result, the index opened on a negative note & witnessed a sharp decline in the first half of the session.
The index went down to test the Wedge pattern breakout line as well as 61.8% retracement of the recent rise. Thereon the index recovered to some extent. The overall structure shows that the bears aren’t allowing Nifty to move out of the consolidation phase & hence the short term consolidation is likely to continue further. On the downside, 14500-14400 is a near term support zone for the Nifty.