Experts see Nifty at 5300 levels, differ on timing

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The markets consolidated for the second straight session with the Sensex closing just short of the 17,000 mark, up 22 points at 16,994. The Nifty gained eight points today, to close at 5,088. For the week, the Sensex gained 3.5%. The broader markets have outperformed for most of this week, with the Midcap Index up 5.8% for the week, and the Smallcap index up 5.3%. The market breadth today closed in favour of the advances, with 765 stocks advancing, and 495 declining. Volumes were healthy as well, with 90,000 crore being clocked in turnover today.

So, where do experts see the markets headed? Will markets continue to consolidate, trend lower, or move higher?

Dipan Mehta, Member, BSE and NSE, sees a few days of correction, maybe a 50-100-200 points cut on the Nifty. Thereafter, he sees the markets trying to test its earlier highs, maybe as early as end of this month or early next month. "There is a better chance of it happening early next month because liquidity may get tight towards March end. But with the easing of liquidity, you may see markets scaling to earlier highs and maybe even testing it." He sees higher opportunities for trading as well as investment in midcap stocks going forward.

Seconding Mehta, Mitesh Thacker, Technical Analyst, miteshthacker.com, says the general view on the street is that we probably will retest or even cross the 5,300 mark. "The momentum looks pretty good. What we are getting is not even a correction after a good run up. It is just a sideways consolidation where the Nifty is not even correcting by 50-70 points on an intraday basis but just a dip of around 20-40 points. The indicators remain very healthy, we might take a day or two maybe to get pass this level of 5,150-5,160, but overall 5,300 looks very feasible in this expiry."

Nitin Rakesh, CEO-Asset Management Business, Motilal Oswal, too feels after the consolidation and correction over the last few weeks, the markets look set to test the January highs for sure. "There is a very interesting dichotomy between inflationary and interest rate concerns and obviously growth that continues to surprise us on the upside. We are clearly poised at an interesting point and are more likely than not too see higher levels." He stated that investor should utilize every opportunity of weakness in the market to build a portfolio for the longer-term.