Sensex, Nifty end in red for 2nd straight day, smallcaps outperform; here’s what to make of today’s trade

Indian share market indices ended over 0.7 per cent on Wednesday as bears took over D-street. BSE Sensex fell 400 points or 0.77 per cent to 51,704, while the Nifty 50 index declined 104.55 points or 0.68 per cent to 15,209. During intraday, Sensex hit a day’s low of 51,586 and high of 52,078. Index heavyweights such as HDFC Bank, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), Kotak Mahindra Bank, TCS, Infosys and Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), among others contributed the most to indices’ loss. While Nifty touched a low 15,170.75. Broader markets outperformed equity benchmarks today. S&P BSE MidCap index was up 9 points at 20,237, while S&P BSE SmallCap index rose half a per cent or 105 points to settle at 19,883.

S Hariharan, Head – Sales Trading, Emkay Global Financial Services

Holidays across global markets have led to a slight dip in participation from institutional investors over the last week. Retail participation continues to remain strong though and futures long open interest for Retail continued to be slightly above last month at 550k lots. Financials and Energy sectors have been leaders over the last week, while Consumer Staples & Discretionary sectors have been laggards. Looking ahead, a sharp rise in US Treasury yields and pick up in commodity prices would have negative implications for foreign flow into bonds, and some collateral impact on INR as well. In this context, one can expect more defensive sectors to remain well-bid in the near term.

Rohit Singre, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities

Index opened a day with a gap down & managed to hold its bearish steam throughout the day and closed a day at 15210 with loss of nearly one per cent with forming a bearish candle for the second consecutive day. The index closed a day below its strong support of 15250 which hints now 15250 will the immediate hurdle on the higher side and we may see good move once index decisively move above 15250 odd levels, immediate support is now placed at 15140-15090 zone and resistance is coming near 15300-15380 zone.

Sahaj Agrawal, Head of Research- Derivative at Kotak Securities

Markets have established a medium term uptrend and expected to scale 16000 and higher. In the short term, extended phase of consolidation is expected. Immediate support for the index is seen at 15000 above which 15500-15700 can be tested; while breach can invite a quick correction. We suggest accumulating frontline stocks on meaningful corrections. IT, FMCG and Energy stocks look attractive while Metals and Realty could witness consolidation.