Mid-day Mood | Sensex, Nifty recover after subdued start, banking stocks gain

Indices fall from day's high

The 30-pack Sensex and the 50-stock Nifty reversed the morning losses to trade higher at noon on March 18 following a recovery in the banking stocks. Investors are now awaiting the US Federal Reserve's policy decision due on March 20, which will have a bearing in the Indian market as well.

Around noon, the Sensex was up 198.32 points, or 0.3 percent, at 72,841.75, and the Nifty was up 49.70 points, or 0.2 percent, at 22,073.00. About 1,770 shares advanced, 1,594 shares declined, and 103 shares remained unchanged.

Adani group companies were in focus as all 10 stocks declined after Bloomberg said that US prosecutors had widened probe to focus on whether any of the firm engaged in bribery.

BSE Midcap and smallcap, which were underperforming the benchmarks since open, came off the lows and were flat at 12.31 pm.

Sectoral Trends

Consumer durables, fast-moving consumer goods, and information technology stocks led the decline, while automobile, oil and gas, and metal companies provided some support to the benchmarks.

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Fundamental View

With the US Federal Reserve's decision looming on March 20, market volatility is expected to intensify, said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities. "Investor attention is also shifting towards the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, slated to commence on April 19 and conclude on June 4," he said.

Tapse said that apprehensions loom over the SEBI-mandated mutual funds' stress test results, indicating potential market stress.

Technical View

The Nifty can find support at 21,900 followed by 21,850 and 21,800, said Deven Mehata, Research Analyst at Choice Broking. On the higher side, 22,100 could be the immediate resistance followed by 22,150 and 22,200, he added.

Key Nifty gainers

Tata Steel, JSW Steel, M&M and Bajaj Auto

Key Nifty losers

UPL, Adani Ports, Tata Consumer and Titan Co

Key Sensex gainers

Tata Steel, JSW Steel, M&M and Tata Motors

Key Sensex losers

Titan Co, Asian Paints, Nestle and Infosys

Stock moves

Tata Steel: Shares jumped nearly 5 percent amid heavy volumes and multiple large deals, buoyed by China’s robust industrial output growth.

Zomato: Shares gained 2.7 percent in early trade after brokerage UBS reiterated its "buy" call on the Gurugam-based food-delivery platform and restaurant aggregator.

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