The market continued its northbound journey on the fifth consecutive session on February 19 to close near the day's high with Nifty hitting a fresh all-time intraday high of 22,186.65.
Amid mixed global cues, the market started positively but gyrated between gains and losses in the initial hours. However, buying in most of the sectoral indices and heavyweights helped it to close near the day's high levels.
At close, the Sensex was up 281.52 points or 0.39 percent at 72,708.16, and the Nifty was up 81.60 points or 0.37 percent at 22,122.30.
Stocks and sectors
The top gainers on the Nifty were Grasim Industries, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Auto, ICICI Bank and Cipla, while the losers were Coal India, SBI Life Insurance, L&T, Wipro and HDFC Life.
Among sectors, capital goods, IT metal and realty ended in the red, while auto, bank, FMCG, healthcare, oil & gas, power up 0.3 -1 percent.
BSE Midcap index added 0.3 percent and Smallcap index rose 0.7 percent.
Among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 300 percent was seen in Biocon, Dixon Technologies and SAIL.
A long build-up was seen in Dixon Technologies, GMR Airports Infrastructure and Multi Commodity Exchange of India, while a short build-up was seen in Coal India, HDFC Asset Management Company and Lupin.
Nearly 400 stocks touched their 52-week high on the BSE, including ACC, Aegis Logistics, Alkem Laboratories, BF Utilities, Castrol India, Container Corporation, CRISIL, Cummins India, Federal Bank, Hi-Tech Pipes, Indian Hotels, JBM Auto, KIOCL, MphasiS, MRPL, Novartis India, Paisalo Digital, Persistent Systms, Quess Corp, Rain Industries, Sonata Software, Supreme Petro, Wockhardt among others. Click here for the full list
Outlook for February 20
Jatin Gedia – Technical Research Analyst at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas
The Nifty opened gap up today and traded with a positive bias during the first half of the trading session. The selling pressure emerged from the resistance zone 22100 – 22150 and the Nifty was unable to decisively close above the resistance zone. Today’s candle has long shadows on either side indicating indecision among market participants regarding the direction. On the hourly charts we can observe a negative crossover along with a divergence which can lead to some correction towards the support zone 21970 – 21930 where the key hourly moving averages and the gap area formed on the 16th February is placed. Overall, the Nifty is trading at a crucial juncture and can turn volatile considering that both Bulls and Bears shall try to defend their respective boundaries.
Bank Nifty continues to inch higher however the momentum is fading out. The negative crossover and negative divergence on the hourly charts suggest loss of momentum on the way up. Ideally a consolidation towards zone 46200 – 46100 shall provide a good entry point for long positions. On the upside the short term target is 47000 - 47200
Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst, LKP Securities
Nifty has surpassed the swing high on the hourly chart, signaling an increase in optimism. Additionally, the consolidation observed in recent days has concluded with an upside breakout. The momentum indicator RSI is also suggesting a positive shift in momentum. The overall sentiment appears to position Nifty for a potential upward movement towards 22,500-22,600 in the short term. The immediate crucial support is situated at 22,000.
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