Nifty inches towards 25,200, while Sensex gains on weekly expiry as IT, pharma, metal stock outshine

Nifty, Sensex resume uptrend after setback in the previous session.

After notching a choppy start to the session, domestic benchmarks Nifty 50 and Sensex settled with smart gains on Thursday, October 9, lifted by buying in pharma, IT, and metal stocks.

At close, the Sensex was up 398.44 points or 0.49 percent at 82,172.10, and the Nifty was up 135.65 points or 0.54 percent at 25,181.80. About 2015 shares advanced, 1978 shares declined, and 159 shares unchanged.

On the sectoral front, the Nifty Metal index outperformed, jumping over 2 percent, while the IT and Pharma indices also rallied over one percent each. All sectors closed in the green.

Further, all eyes will be on the IT services player TCS that is kicking off India Inc's earnings season for the September quarter. The expectations from TCS are varied, with some brokerages expecting low single-digit profit growth, while some expect profit growth of up to 9.6 percent YoY.

"Overall Q2 earnings are likely to remain pedestrian and, therefore, the market will be looking more at the developments in the real market for goods like automobiles and consumer electronics," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments.

The Nifty has now carved out a broad trading range between 25,200 and 24,900. "As long as it remains within this band, a choppy and range-bound phase is likely to persist,” said Dhupesh Dhameja, Derivatives Research Analyst, SAMCO Securities.

From a technical standpoint, he added that Nifty continues to hover around the psychological mark of 25,000, with multiple layers of support aligning nearby. On the upside, unless the index decisively clears the 25,200–25,250 resistance band, sellers are expected to maintain their grip.

Analysts suggest that traders should 'buy-on-dips', and consider fresh long positions only if the Nifty sustains above the 25,250 mark.

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