Closing Bell: Nifty ends below 18,000, Sensex tanks 631 points; IT, financials a drag

Taking Stock | Market in reverse gear; Sensex tanks 631 points, Nifty below 18,000

Adani Enterprises, Bharti Airtel, Eicher Motors, Adani Ports and SBI were among the top Nifty losers. The biggest gainers included Tata Motors, Hindalco Industries, Apollo Hospitals, Power Grid Corp and Divis Labs... Read More

Nifty continues to trade in a horrendously defined range of 18250-17750 for the last 13 days. Nifty has not made any directional measure in the last 13 sessions, one of the slowest periods in months.

The significance of this is that directional moves are absent and the price reverts back to the mean in a matter of days. In such a scenario trader either has the willingness to hold on to a trade for several weeks.

Nifty has major support at 17750 which, if taken out, will take the index lower to 17550-17500. On the upside, major resistance is at 18220-18250. Nifty needs to break above 18250 for the current decline to reverse.

Yesterday’s bullish Harami was not confirmed and sellers turned aggressive today. Nifty, in the last couple of days is not responding to up moves in international markets. It is a matter of time before this happens. Expect Nifty to be volatile in coming days.

The Bank Nifty index witnessed selling pressure throughout the trading session and ended near the day's low level ahead of the Fed chairman's speech.

The index faces stiff resistance on the upside at the 43,000 level, where the highest open interest is built up on the call side.

The downside is supported at 42,000, and if it is breached, further selling pressure will be directed toward the 41,500-41,400 zone, which will be the last line of defence for bulls.

Markets witnessed fresh drubbing ahead of Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell’s speech, and Nifty slipped hard from 18100 levels as investors weighed hawkish comments from two US Federal Reserve policymakers that countered hopes that the US central bank might dial back its aggressive monetary tightening.

Barring Nifty Auto index, all sectoral indices ended in the red with maximum pain seen at Nifty PSU Banks. For Nifty the immediate support is seen at 17771 mark and then major support lies at 17457 mark.

Markets plunged lower and lost nearly a percent, in continuation to the prevailing corrective phase. After the initial downtick, the Nifty index inched gradually lower as the session progressed and engulfed the move of the last trading session.

The decline was widespread wherein banking, metal, realty and IT were among the top losers. The broader indices too witnessed pressure and lost nearly half a percent each.

Markets are gradually drifting lower amid volatility and indications are pointing towards more pain ahead. Meanwhile, mixed global cues combined with earnings season would keep traders on the edge. We thus reiterate our view to limit positions and prefer a hedged approach, especially for the overnight trades.

Nifty gave up the gains of the previous session on Jan 10 pulled down by weak global cues. After making an intra-day low at 1445 Hrs, Nifty made a feeble recovery and closed 1.03% or 187.1 points lower at 17914.2.

Volumes on the NSE continued to be on the lower side. Broad market indices fell less than the Nifty but the advance decline ratio fell to 0.55:1. IT and Bank stocks gave up part of the recent gains.

Global shares eased on Tuesday as investors took profit on the gains from the past two weeks after comments from two Federal Reserve officials injected a note of caution over the U.S. rate outlook, cracking equities. Optimism over China reopening faded. However, in the morning the MSCI Asia Pacific index hit a high of 162.33 on Tuesday – roughly 21% higher than its 52-week low of 133.93 reached on October 24 entering bull market.

Nifty is not able to build on the gains beyond 18150. A move below 17774 could attract more selling pressure as the monthly low of December will then be breached. On upmoves 18047-18101 could act as a resistance.

Local investors have been following global cues, and weakness in European and US markets triggered a downfall in domestic equities, which saw Nifty end below the crucial 18000-mark.

Trading sentiment has been very weak and most of the sluggish external factors are prompting investors to book profit at regular intervals.

Technically, the Nifty has formed a long bearish candle on daily charts indicating further weakness from the current levels.

For bulls 18,000 would be the key level to watch out for, and above the same the index could retest the level of 18,100-18,150.

On the flip side 17,800 would act as a sacrosanct support zone, below which selling pressure is likely to accelerate and drag down the index up to 17,700-17,675.

Indian rupee closed 58 paise higher at 81.78 per dollar against previous close of 82.36.

: Benchmark indices ended lower on January 10 with Nifty around 17,900.

At Close, the Sensex was down 631.83 points or 1.04% at 60,115.48, and the Nifty was down 187 points or 1.03% at 17,914.20. About 1376 shares have advanced, 2027 shares declined, and 152 shares are unchanged.

Adani Enterprises, Bharti Airtel, Eicher Motors, Adani Ports and SBI were among the top losers on the Nifty. The gainers were Tata Motors, Hindalco Industries, Apollo Hospitals, Power Grid Corp and Divis Labs.

Among sectors, PSU Bank index down over 2 percent, while Nifty Bank and Infra indices down 1 percent each.

The BSE midcap and smallcap indices fell 0.5 percent each.

-Upgrade to buy, target at Rs 512
-JLR reported 6%/15% QoQ/YoY improvement in wholesale volume for Q3
-Chip supply improved & demand remained strong
-Order backlog increased to 2.15 lakh units at the end of quarter
-Expect JLR margin profile to improve led by volume growth
-For CV & PV biz margin to improve on lower commodity costs & price hikes
-Improvement in volume and margin profile to aid free cash generation in FY24

Tata Motors was quoting at Rs 413.00, up Rs 23.60, or 6.06 percent on the BSE.

The Indian rupee becomes the best performer among the Asian currencies following stop order triggers and inflows from bond selling. The local unit witnessed the biggest single-day gains after November 11 and broke the psychological level of 82 as the traders rush to cover the positions.

Spot USDINR now has the support of 81.70, the 50% Fibonacci retracement adjoining the November 14 low of 80.51 and the January 03 high of 82.94. The near-term view remains bearish for the pair and a level below 81.70 will pave way for 81.45 while on the higher side 82.10 acts as resistance.