Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking:
The Indian equity benchmark indices continued their downtrend and ended Friday’s session on a negative note ahead of the union budget. Profit taking was witnessed at higher levels as the Nifty index ended sharply lower by 0.6% at 11,962 levels. Amongst the broader markets, BSE-Midcap ended in-line with the benchmark however Smallcap ended with losses of 0.3%. On the sector front, barring Banks, Consumer Durables and Realty, all the other sectoral indices witnessed selling pressure, wherein Metals, Oil & Gas and Power were the top losers.
We expect markets to remain volatile in the near term given the muted global cues. In addition, the next catalyst for any decisive move would be the union budget as expectations are high that government would announce some measures to boost economic growth. However, some consolidation in the Indian markets cannot be ruled out if the budget fails to live up to the expectations.