After The Bell: Market continues to consolidate, what should investors do on Monday?

Midcaps and smallcaps suffered more as the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices closed 0.70 percent and 0.89 percent lower, respectively.

"The market continued to be in the consolidation phase witnessing broad-based selling, taking cues from the Fed policy and mixed global markets. US bond yields have cooled off from their high as global markets seem to have digested the latest Fed comments," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

"China’s plan to sell metal reserves to check recent price hikes has pulled down the sector's sentiments. The market is likely to continue in the consolidation phase for a short while which can be an opportunity for investors to buy on dips," he said.

Most sectoral indices closed in the red; BSE Power fell 2.77 percent, followed by utilities (down 2.54 percent) and metal (down 2.01 percent).

However, BSE Telecom bucked the trend and logged a gain of 1.47 percent. Apart from the telecom index, only FMCG (up 0.20 percent) and consumer durables (up 0.12 percent) could manage to end in the green.

The overall market-capitalisation of BSE-listed firms stood at Rs 227.34 lakh crore on June 18.

Here’s what experts suggest investors should do on June 21:

Expert: Chandan Taparia, Vice President | Analyst-Derivatives, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

The Nifty formed a bearish candle on a daily scale but the presence of a long lower shadow indicates that declines were quickly bought.

Now, it has to hold above 15,600 to witness an up move towards 15,800 and 15,900 while on the downside, support can be seen at 15,500 and 15,450.

Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking

With no major event, global cues will continue to dictate the market trend. On the domestic front, the progress of the monsoon and updates on the vaccination drive will be closely watched.

Indications are in favour of further consolidation in the index but the bias would remain on the positive side till the Nifty holds above 15,400.

Participants should maintain their focus on the selection of stocks and use dips to gradually accumulate the fundamentally sound counters.

Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research at Kotak Securities

The texture of the chart suggests that for Nifty/Sensex 15,400/51,800 should be the sacrosanct level and as long as it is trading above the same, the uptrend is likely to continue up to 15,800-15,900/52,600-52,850 levels.

Further upside may also continue which could lift the index till 16,050-16,130/ 53,100-53,300.

On the flip side, below 15,400/51,800, the uptrend would be vulnerable. On the sector-specific front, capital goods, infrastructure, and telecom are likely to outperform in the near future.

Ashis Biswas, Head of Technical Research at CapitalVia Global Research

The market witnessed some lacklustre movement and attempted to hold the support level around 15,600. The market expects 15,600 will act as a support and the technical factors seem aligned to support a sideways correction.

The trend is likely to continue for a few more trading sessions before the market resumes its upside momentum again.

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