After two days of a heavy selloff, the Indian market bounced back sharply on February 15 to recoup the previous session’s losses on broad-based buying following reports of Russia withdrawing some of its troops from districts bordering Ukraine.
At close, the Sensex was up 1,736.21 points, or 3.08 percent, at 58,142.05 and the Nifty gained 509.70 points or 3.03 percent, at 17,352.50. The benchmarks had crashed more than 3 percent the previous day in the biggest single-day fall in 10 months.
"A ray of hope that tension between Russia and Ukraine is de-escalating prompted a smart recovery in global equities. The domestic market followed the trend as oil prices edged lower," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
A report on February 15 quoted Russia's defence ministry as saying that some troops adjacent to Ukraine were returning to their bases, a move that could de-escalate frictions between Moscow and the West, news agency Reuters reported.
The market started higher amid mixed global cues and remained volatile in the initial hours but gained in the afternoon session to end near the day's high.
"India’s CPI inflation for January rose to 6.01 percent breaching RBI’s tolerance level due to high food inflation and low base effect. This will be a point of concern for domestic market in the near term," Nair added.
Tata Motors, Eicher Motors, Bajaj Finance, Shree Cements and Hero MotoCorp were the top Nifty gainers, while losers were Cipla and ONGC.
All sectoral indices ended in the green led by Nifty auto, bank, PSU bank, IT and FMCG, which gained between 2 and 4 percent.
Broader markets, however, underperformed the benchmarks. BSE midcap rose 2.7 percent and the smallcap index gained 2 percent.
Stocks and sectors
On the BSE, auto, bank, realty, capital goods and IT added 3 percent each, while FMCG, healthcare, metal, oil & gas and power indices were up 1-2 percent.
A short build-up was seen in the Manappuram Finance, Cipla and Metropolis Healthcare, while long build-up was seen in the LIC Housing Finance, IndiaMart Intermesh and India Cements.
Among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 100 percent was seen in Cipla, Eicher Motors and Piramal Enterprises.
More than 100 stocks, including Mindspace Business Parks REIT and NDTV hit a 52-week high on the BSE. Wockhardt, SpiceJet and Ujjivan Financial Services were among more than 100 stocks that hit a 52-week low.
Outlook for February 16
Palak Kothari, Research Associate at Choice Broking
On the daily chart, the index has taken support from the 200-day moving average (DMA) as well as a lower band of Bollinger and formed a big bullish candle, which covered the previous gap which suggests strength.
On the hourly chart, the index has given a closing above 21*50-HMA with the positive crossover, which suggests upside momentum for the next session.
Daily momentum indicators Stochastic & MACD are also trading with a positive crossover, which adds strength to prices.
At present, the index has support at 16,800, while resistance is at 17,500. The Bank Nifty has support at 37,300 and resistance at 39,000.
Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities
On daily charts, the Nifty has formed a long bullish candle, which indicates the continuation of a pullback rally in the near term. However, in the short term, the market is still holding lower top formation and is trading below the 50-day SMA, which is largely negative for the index.
For the Nifty, 17,450 and 17,550 would be the immediate hurdles. As long as the index trades above 17,200, the uptrend will continue to 17,450-17,550.
A quick intraday correction is not ruled out if the index trades below 17,200. The index can then slide to 17,100-17,050.
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