Closing bell: Nifty closes below 15,000, Sensex falls over 400 points; PSU Banks take the biggest hit

"The forex market is very volatile, and the short-term trading range has shifted to 72.50-73.50. The speculation that reopening of economies, along with additional fiscal stimulus will increase inflation and the Fed will have to begin tapering at earliest is activating the dollar bulls. In our view, traders are prematurely betting for Fed rate hike and an actual discussion will begin in the late 2021. But until then, the global cautious tone will limit the fall in spot on account of slew of IPOs lined up in coming months,"RahulGupta, Head Of Research- Currency at EmkayGlobal Financial Servicessaid.

"Now, the immediate focus is on tonight's US NFP data, only a dismal figure may spark concerns for America's ability to recover and weigh on dollar. So for next week, we expect the spot to trade within 72.50-73.50 with a sideways bias," he added.

"Nifty index opened gap down on account of weak global cues and bulls were seen to have lost strength as the index dragged towards 14,850 levels. The market witnessed a volatile weak and is now facing a pause in the momentum and got stuck in broader trading range. It concluded the day with losses of around 140 points. It formed a small Bearish candle on daily scale with long shadows on either side which indicates a tussle between the bulls and the bears in the market. It continues its formation of lower highs - lower lows of the last two sessions. Now, it has to cross and hold above 15,000 zones to witness an up move towards 15,150 and 15,250 zones while on the downside immediate support exists at 14,800 then 14,600 levels," Chandan Taparia,Vice President|Analyst-Derivatives at
Motilal Oswal Financial Services said.

"Indices opened weak on the back of Jerome Powell remarks and rising oil prices. Profit booking in Metals & Financials kept markets in the red throughout the day," he said.

The key highlight was the huge response seen to the IPO of MTAR Technologies as investors rushed subscriptions on its last day today, he added.

"The markets have had yet another day in the red. However, it has not broken the medium term support range of 14,700-14,800. If we break that, we could travel south to levels closer to 14,400-14,500. If we bounce from these levels, we would need to get past the 15,300 level to move to higher targets of 15,500-15,600. Until then the Nifty is going to be range bound and choppy,"ManishHathiramani, proprietary index trader and technical analyst atDeenDayalInvestments said.

The benchmark indices corrected for second consecutive session on Friday on weak global cues. The Nifty50 fell 142.70 points or0.95 percent to close at14,938.10, while the BSE Sensex was down440.76 points or0.87 percent at50,405.32.

All sectoral indices closed in the red with PSU Bank index down 4 percent. The broader markets also corrected, underperforming benchmark indices. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was down 2.15 percent and the Smallcap 100 index declined 1.55 percent.

"We expect the company to benefit from an increase in demand for travel and tourism post-COVID. It is expected that online penetration for both segments, airline ticketing, and railways ticketing, will improve to approximately 76 percentto 78 percent, and 82 percentto 83percentrespectively, in Fiscal 2023.In the case of the hotel segment, online penetration is expected to improve to approximately 29 percentto 31 percentin Fiscal 2023 primarily on account of supply expansion as more players, particularly from smaller Tier I, II, and III cities shift to online platforms," saidMarwadiSharesandFinance.

The brokerage recommended subscribing to Easy Trip Planners IPO on the consistent track record of financial and operational performance with lean and cost-efficient operations.

Oil prices rallied around 2 percent or over $1 a barrel today, hitting their highest levels in nearly 14 months, after OPEC and its allies agreed not to increase supply in April as they await a more substantial recovery in demand amid the coronavirus pandemic, reports Reuters.

Brent crude futures for May rose to as high as $68 a barrel on Friday, a level not seen since January 8, 2020. The contract was up $1.22, or 1.83 percent, to $67.96 a barrel.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbed 1.72 percent, to $64.93 per barrel.

The market witnessed some lackluster movement. Nifty50 Index is still trading below the resistance level of 15,250. While it is subject to further price action evolution, it is prudent to wait for a decisive breakout above 15,250 and technical factors to improve before going long in the market. The traders are advised to refrain from building a new buying position until further improvement.

All sectoral indices traded in the red with the Nifty Metal index hitting the most, falling over 3 percent. Nifty Bank, Auto, Financial Services, IT and Pharma indices were down 1-2 percent.

Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, one of the India's leading small finance bank, has filed draft red herring prospectus with the capital market regulator Sebi to raise around Rs 1,350 crore through initial public offering.

The public issue comprises a fresh issue of Rs 750 crore and an offer for sale of up to Rs 600 crore by selling shareholder Utkarsh Coreinvest Ltd.

The public issue of MTAR Technologies has been subscribed 145.45 times so far on the final day of bidding, March 5. The reserved portions for retail and non-institutional investors have been subscribed 26.64 times and 468.53 times, respectively. The portion set aside for qualified institutional buyers witnessed a subscription of 125.04 times.

The Rs 596-crore public offer has received bids for 108.5 crore equity shares against the issue size of over 72.60 lakh equity shares, the subscription data available on the exchanges showed.

: A fresh rally in global bond yields pushed precious metals prices lower. Silver prices are trading around $25.33, sharply lower from the previous month high of $30.31 as the global bond rally is forcing long liquidation in Gold and Siler ETF. Silver prices gave up an early advance and continued with selling off after Fed Chair Powell showed a lack of concern about higher yields during a speech.

Silver prices are likely to face stiff resistance near 10 days EMA at $26.45 and 20 days EMA at $26.74 while immediate support levels are seen around $24.33-$23.60.