The equity benchmarks eked out marginal gains in yet another day of choppy trade, with investor turning cautious ahead of the December quarter earnings and US inflation data.
At close, the Sensex was up 63.47 points or 0.09 percent at 71,721.18, and the Nifty was up 28.50 points or 0.13 percent at 21,647.20.
The market started the session on a higher note on positive global cues and despite profit booking at higher levels, it remained in the green in the first half. Selling in the later part of the session pushed indices in to red but they managed to recover to close with minor gains.
Stocks and sectors
Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank and BPCL were among the top Nifty gainers, while losers included Infosys, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, SBI Life Insurance, HUL and Wipro.
Mixed trend was seen on the sectoral front, with the BSE capital goods index down a percent and IT index 0.5 percent. The auto and oil & gas indices gained a percent each.
Broader indices outperformed the main indices, with BSE midcap and smallcap indices adding 0.7 percent each.
A long build-up was seen in Gujarat Gas, Mahanagar Gas and Shriram Finance, while a short build-up was seen in Polycab India, Petronet LNG and Dr Reddy's Laboratories.
Among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 500 percent was seen in GNFC, Nestle India and Delta Corp.
More than 500 stocks touched their 52-week high on the BSE, including Avanti Feeds, Chennai Petroleum Corporation, Engineers India, Gujarat Gas, Gujarat Pipavav, ICICI Securities, Imagicaaworld Entertainment, Kalyani Steels, Motilal Oswal, MRPL, MSTC, Network 18 Media & Investments, Oriental Carbon, Quick Heal Technologies, Shriram Finance, Suven Life Sciences, Udaipur Cement. Click here for the full list
Outlook for January 12
Kunal Shah, Senior Technical & Derivative Analyst at LKP Securities
Nifty faced selling pressure within the 21700-21750 range, yet found stability as it held above its 10-day moving average, concluding the session with a positive close. Presently, Nifty's immediate support has shifted to 21600, while 21730 serves as a resistance level on the technical chart. The broader positional support for Nifty remains at 21500.
The Bank Nifty index witnessed ongoing struggles between bulls and bears, leading to a volatile trading session. A significant hurdle for the index is identified at 48000, marked by substantial call writing.
A decisive breakthrough above this level is anticipated to trigger a sharp short-covering rally. On the downside, the lower-end support remains intact at 46900. A close below this support level may intensify selling pressure in the market.
Aditya Gaggar Director of Progressive Shares
A rangebound trade comes to an end at 21,647.20 with gains of 28.50 points. Among the sectors, Energy and Auto were the star performers while a correction was seen in the IT index ahead of Q3 numbers of sector giants Infy and TCS.
The interest of market participants was more towards the broader markets as Mid and Smallcaps outperformed the Frontline Index. In a well-defined range of 21,470-21,800, it appears that the Index is forming a Bullish Flag pattern and one can expect a sharp uptick after the pattern breakout.
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