Sensex and Nifty have now closed flat for the second day straight but remain within touching distance of all-time highs. S&P BSE Sensex closed yesterday’s expiry session at 55,949 while the NSE Nifty 50 ended at 16,636. Broader markets once again outperformed benchmark indices, except Nifty Midcap 50, which was down in the red on the closing bell. Bank Nifty continued to trade below 36,000 mark. Entering the final trading session of the week, SGX Nifty was trading flat, moving between gains and losses, signalling a muted opening to the day’s trade. Cues from global peers were largely negative.
Global watch: Wall Street equity indices closed with losses on Thursday, as the situation in Afghanistan escalated with an explosion near the Kabul airport and comments from FOMC members favoured tapering by the Federal Reserve. Dow Jones was down 0.54%, S&P 500 fell 0.58%, and NASDAQ was down 0.64%. In Asia, Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Nikkei 225, and TOPIX were trading with losses. KOSPI and KOSDAQ were up in the green.
Technical take: Nifty was range-bound on Thursday before closing flat with a positive bias. “A small positive candle was formed on the daily chart with upper shadow and the high low range for the day was also muted. Technically, this pattern indicates a range bound action in the market with weak bias,” said Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.
Levels to watch out: Yesterday marked the close of the August F&O series, where Nifty gained 950 points but now range-bound activity could be in the mix. “For the traders, 16680 could be the immediate hurdle. However, we can expect a quick uptrend rally up to 16725-16775 levels if the index succeeds to clear the intraday resistance of 16680. Below the same, the correction wave could continue up to 16560-16520 levels,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research, Kotak Securities.
FII and DII trades: Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) were net sellers of domestic equities for the 8th consecutive trading session yesterday. FIIs pulled out Rs 1,974 crore from domestic markets. Domestic Institutional Investors (DII) were net buyers of domestic equities on Thursday, pumping in Rs 1,055 crore.
IPO watch: Two IPOs will open for subscription next week, continuing the IPO rush on Dalal Street. Ami Organics IPO along with that of Vijaya Diagnostic Centre. While the latter is looking to raise Rs 1,895 crore from the IPO, the former’s public issue will include a fresh issue of equity shares worth Rs 200 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of up to 60.59 lakh equity shares. Recent IPOs have made a bad trading debut on Dalal Street, opening at discount.
