The market failed to hold on to opening gains and ended near the day's low in a volatile session on August 24, with the Sensex falling 180.96 points, or 0.28 percent, to 65,252.34 and the Nifty ending at 19,386.70, down 57.30 points or 0.29 percent.
The market opened strong on positive global cues and extended the gains in the initial hours but then slipped on widespread selling in the second half to end near the day's low.
The Sensex shed 661 points from the day's high of 65,913.77 and the Nifty50 197.75 points from the high of 19,584.45.
Top Nifty losers included Reliance Industries, Grasim Industries, ONGC, Power Grid Corp and JSW Steel, while gainers were BPCL, Asian Paints, IndusInd Bank, Infosys and Britannia Industries.
On the sectoral front, auto, capital goods, PSU Bank, oil & gas, pharma, metal shed 0.3-0.7 percent each, while the information technology index was up 0.5 percent.
The BSE midcap and smallcap indices ended on flat note.
A short build-up was seen in Piramal Enterprises, Reliance Industries and HDFC Asset Management Company, while a long build-up was seen in Coforge, GMR Airports Infrastructure and Mphasis.
SAIL, Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Ipca Laboratories witnessed a volume spike of more than 800 percent in today's session.
Federal Bank, Axis Bank, Mphasis, South Indian Bank, Welspun India, BEML, Genus Power Infrastructures, Polycab India, Varroc Engineering, Texmaco Rail & Engineering, Larsen & Toubro, SMS Pharmaceuticals, Tata Power, Titagarh Rail Systems, Suzlon Energy, Tata Communications, Escorts Kubota, Ircon International, among others, touched their 52-week high on the BSE.
Outlook for August 25
Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Research (Retail), Kotak Securities:
While markets were volatile in early trades, it turned rangebound with a negative bias thereafter and finally ended on a subdued note as investors are not taking any chances by betting big in an uncertain global economic environment.
Investors will continue to take cues from global markets for direction as nobody wants to get caught off guard in case of any negative developments.
Technically, the Nifty has formed a bearish candle, which is largely negative. For bulls, 19470 would act as an immediate resistance zone, and if the index is trading below the same, the weak sentiment is likely to continue and could retest the level of 19325-19300. On the flip side, post 19500 breakout the market could rally till 19600-19625.
Ajit Mishra, SVP - Technical Research, Religare Broking
Markets traded volatile on the weekly expiry day and ended in the red. After the initial gap-up opening, Nifty extended gains in early trades but selling pressure in heavyweights pushed the index lower as the day progressed. Eventually, it settled around the day’s low at 19386.70 level; down by 0.3%. Most sectors were aligned to the trend wherein energy and pharma were the top losers. Amid all, the broader indices traded mixed wherein the midcap index closed higher while the smallcap index ended marginally lower after making a new record high.
The move indicates that bears are not in the mood to lose their control and tone may deteriorate again on the break of 50 EMA i.e. around 19285. We have been maintaining a view stance to focus on stock selection amid choppiness and it is working well so far. Traders should avoid aggressive positions and prefer hedged trades until we see some clarity over the next directional move.
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