Taking Stock | Sensex, Nifty snap four-day losing streak on gains in IT; banking, pharma drag

The Indian equity benchmarks snapped their four-day losing streak on December 16 amid volatility fuelled by profit-booking by FIIs and the Fed’s indication of limiting the monthly bond purchases as well as three interest rate hikes in 2022.

The Sensex ended 113 points, or .20 percent, higher at 57,901.14 and the Nifty gained 27 points, or .16 percent, to close at 17,248.40.

“Domestic bourses closed flat with a mild positive bias despite an upbeat economic outlook by the US Fed. Domestic weakness was due to FII selling and moderation in retail activity,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

The markets opened on a confident note. The Sensex opened with positive gap of about 455 points at 58,243.43. It remained in the positive territory to touch the day’s high of 58,337.20 in the afternoon before paring gains. It slipped to the day’s low of 57,683.11 but recovered to close at 57,901.14.

The Nifty, too, had a gap-up opening of 152 points at 17,373. It made a high of 17,379.35 and a low of 17,184.94 to end the day at 17,248.40.

The Federal Reserve chairman Jeremy Powell announced to double the pace of asset tapering by early 2022 rather than a mid-2022, paving the way for possible three interest rate hikes, backed by a rapidly strengthening economy and employment gains amid inflation concerns.

“This is mostly in line with expectations taken positively by the rest of the world equity market,” Nair added.

Broader indices ended lower, with the BSE midcap index down 0.7 percent and BSE smallcap index declining 0.65 percent.

Index	Prices	Change	Change%
Sensex	84,587.01	-313.70	-0.37%
Nifty 50	25,884.80	-74.70	-0.29%
Nifty Bank	58,820.30	-15.05	-0.03%

Nifty 50 25,884.80 -74.70 (-0.29%)

Tue, Nov 25, 2025

• 1D
• 5D
• 1M
• 3M
• 6M
• 1Y
• 2Y

Biggest Gainer	Prices	Change	Change%
Hindalco	789.35	14.70	+1.90%

Biggest Loser	Prices	Change	Change%
Adani Enterpris	2,332.90	-66.30	-2.76%

Best Sector	Prices	Change	Change%
Nifty PSU Bank	8486.50	120.75	+1.44%

Worst Sector	Prices	Change	Change%
Nifty IT	36826.90	-211.00	-0.57%

Bajaj Finance, Infosys, BPCL, Titan Company and Reliance Industries were the top gainers on the Nifty. Hindalco, Cipla, Maruti Suzuki, ICICI Bank and Hero Motocorp were the top Nifty losers.

Stocks and sectors

Despite a positive closing, IT, up more than 1 percent, was the lone ranger among sectors to close in the green. All other sectors ended in the red, with banking, auto, pharma and realty hit the hardest.

Among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 200 percent was seen in JK Cement, Birlasoft and Indiabulls Housing.

A long build-up was seen in Vedanta, Coforge and Dixon Technologies, while there was a short build-up in TVS Motor, Torrent Power and Crompton Greaves Consumer Electrical.

Technical View

The Nifty opened positive but failed to hold its opening zone and drifted below 17,200 during the day.

It managed to close in the green with some support based buying in the last hour “but every bounce is being sold and supply pressure is intact at key resistance area”, said Chandan Taparia, Vice President | Analyst-Derivatives at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

“The Nifty formed a bearish candle on daily scale and has been forming lower lows from the last four sessions, he added.

The index can slip to 17,100 and 17,000 if it remains below 17,350. Major hurdle exists at 17,500 zones, Taparia said.

“On intraday charts, the Nifty has maintained a lower top formation as it once again witnessed selling pressure near 17,350, which is broadly negative for the market”, said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities Ltd.

Outlook for December 17

Rohit Singre, Senior Technical Analyst, LKP Securities

The Nifty again respected the support zone of 17,200 and witnessed some pullback. Going forward, 17,200 will be the first support followed by 17,140 zone.

If the index sustains above 17,200, some extension is possible towards 17,370-17,450, which is the immediate resistance on the higher side.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head, Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities Ltd

In this week, so far, the index has corrected over 450 points and is trading near the important retracement support level.

While the short-term texture of the market is still weak, a quick pullback rally is not ruled out if the Nifty trades above 17,350. If it slips below 17,350, a correction wave can continue up to 17,200-17,150.

For the bulls, 17,350 would be the intraday breakout level and above it, the reversal formation will persist up to 17,400-17,435.

Sahaj Agrawal, Head of Research-Derivatives, Kotak Securities

Markets are hovering around critical support levels and provide a good risk-reward opportunity. As long as 16,600 is held, there are high chances of the index testing 19,000 odd levels; failure would have meaningful negative implications.

Ajit Mishra, VP-Research, Religare Broking Ltd

As all the major events are over now, we feel the performance of the global markets would be critical in the days to come.

At the same time, we expect the buzz to continue in the primary market. Among the sectors, only the IT pack looks decisive, while others are witnessing mixed trends. Participants should plan accordingly.

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