Monday mayhem on Dalal Street as Sensex, Nifty tank; here’s what experts make of today’s trade

Dalal Street today saw the return of bears and witnessed them dominate the day’s trading session. S&P BSE Sensex closed 882 points lower at 47,949 while the NSE Nifty 50 dived to close at 14,359. Bears wreaked havoc on equity markets pulling down almost all segments of the market. Banking stocks were among the major drags for most of the day’s trade but recouped some losses during the closing hour today. Power Grid, IndusInd Bank, ONGC, and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the top laggard on Sensex today. Dr Reddy’s and Infosys were the top gainers.

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities

“Indian benchmark equity indices ended lower on April 19 amid fears of impact of the second wave of Covid-19 and the consequent lockdowns on the economy. Nifty has formed a second down gap in 5 days signifying the underlying weakness. However, the close today was near the intraday high thereby making a hanging man type of formation. This could mean some more upside recovery in the near term. However, at higher levels, markets will keep seeing repeated selling given the impact of Covid second wave on businesses and the economy.”

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services

“Domestic markets nosedived as surging Covid cases and the imposition of restrictions continued to fan investor worries. Increasing restrictions are forcing investors to reconsider the current valuations. Further, the banking sector pressured the market due to rising concerns over asset quality. As the investors remain focused on the rising covid-19 cases, the market will continue to ride on volatility. We can expect  stability as daily cases fall in the coming weeks due to lockdown, completion of state elections and immunity with vaccination.”

Manish Hathiramani, Proprietary Index Trader and Technical Analyst, Deen Dayal Investments

“We did not break 14,200-14,250 on a closing basis and hence the onset of a bear market cannot be confirmed. This patch is a good support for the Nifty and if we disrespect this, we can drift to 13,800-13,900. Since the upside is capped at 15,000, a view on the long side can be only be taken post that level. Until then the index will remain sideways with a downward bias.”

Rohit Singre, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities

“Index opened a day with strong cuts but in the second half showed decent pullback & closed a day at 14,365 with loss of nearly two per cent. The index has formed a hammer candle pattern on the daily chart which hints if current levels are held we may see some positive reversal in coming sessions, a strong base is still at 14,250-14,200 zone if managed to hold then good recovery possible towards immediate hurdle zone of 14,450-14,550 zone.”

Mohit Nigam, Head, PMS & Advisory, Hem Securities

“Markets continue to move downwards directly as a consequence of a record number of corona cases. Increase in lockdown restrictions across different parts of the country spooked the market sentiments in the morning session, whereas in the second session we saw a partial recovery. We however believe that the increasing restrictions should not have a severe impact on the day to day working of Nifty 500 companies which by now would have found a way to continue with their operations. Hence, one can invest a part of their corpus to accumulate good quality companies across stable sectors. Technically, the market again rebounded from 14,200 levels which is still acting as a strong support.”