Taking Stock: Markets at fresh record high; Nifty around 20,200, Sensex gains 320 points

Biggest gainers were Bajaj Auto, Grasim Industries, M&M, Hero MotoCorp and Bharti Airtel, while losers included BPCL, Asian Paints, HUL, Jio Financial and Tata Consumer Products.

Mixed trend was seen among the sectors, with FMCG, oil & gas, power and realty down 0.4-1 percent, while auto, bank, pharma, information technology rose 0.3-1 percent.

The BSE midcap and Smallcap indices ended on a positive note.

A long build-up was seen in Vodafone Idea, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company and Bajaj Auto, while a short build-up was seen in Interglobe Aviation, IOC and HPCL.

Among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 500 percent was seen in Ipca Laboratories, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company and Bajaj Auto.

Bharat Forge, Vodafone Idea, HCL Technologies, Gillette India, TVS Motor Company, UCO Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Union Bank of India, Jindal Steel & Power, Welspun Corp, Zomato, NMDC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindram, Religare Enterprises, ONGC, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, among others stocks that touched their 52-week high on the BSE. Click to View Full List

Outlook for September 18

Ajit Mishra, SVP - Technical Research, Religare Broking:

Markets extended up move after a day of pause and gained nearly half a percent. On the benchmark front, Nifty opened with an uptick and traded range bound thereafter. It finally settled at 20,192.35 levels; up by 0.44%. Meanwhile, the trend was mixed on the sectoral front wherein auto and IT posted strong gains while realty and FMCG ended in the red. The broader indices too were aligned with the move and gained nearly half a percent each.

We expect a positive tone to continue in the Nifty, with some intermediate consolidation citing a hurdle at 20,300 levels. Participants should maintain a “buy on dips” approach and look for stocks offering a favorable risk to reward ratio.

Amol Athawale, Vice President - Technical Research, Kotak Securities:

Besides firm global market cues, investors are anticipating a halt in rate hike by the US Federal Reserve in the next week's policy meeting amid moderating inflation, which would augur well for local markets already witnessing a strong upsurge. A status quo on rate hikes would further bolster investors' sentiment as this would give a further leg up to the economy on hopes of softening interest rate stance going ahead.

A drop in US treasury yields have resulted in a recovery in world equity markets and also had a rub-off effect on local markets. On daily and weekly charts, the Nifty has formed a breakout continuation formation which is indicating that the uptrend wave is likely to continue in the near future. Although the larger texture of the market is bullish, the market is in temporary overbought conditions, and hence we could see some profit booking at higher levels. For short term traders, 20075 and 20000 would act as key support zones while 20300-20375 could act as crucial resistance areas for the bulls.

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