Dalal Street continued to correct on Thursday, marking the third day straight of ending in losses. S&P BSE Sensex currently sits at 59,126 while the NSE Nifty 50 is placed at 17,618. Midcap and smallcap indices outperformed and closed with gains. India VIX closed 2.3% lower but continues to sit above 18 levels. Entering the last trading session of the week, SGX Nifty was down a staggering 160 points signalling a weak start for domestic equities. Global cues were also negative with Wall Street indices closing in the red and the Asian stock markets mirroring the fall.

Global watch: On Wall Street, Dow Jones tanked 1.59% on Thursday, followed by a 1.19% fall in S&P 500 and a 0.44% fall in NASDAQ. Among Asian markets, Nikkei 225, TOPIX, were down nearly 2% each while KOSPI and KOSDAQ were down 1.4% each. 

Technical take: On the charts, Nifty formed a small negative candle beside the small positive candle of Wednesday, said Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst, HDFC Securities. “This pattern signal that the consolidation movement or weakness could extend for the next session. The formation of bullish high wave-type candle pattern of Wednesday has failed to confirm on Thursday,” he added.

Levels to watch out for: “The intraday trading setup suggests 17700 could act as a strong resistance level, and below the same the correction could continue up to 17500-17450 levels. On the flip side, beyond 17700 the immediate hurdle would be the 17750 level. On the contrary, any revival could lift the index up to 1780,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities. On the other hand, Nagaraj Shetti believes Nifty could slip down to 17475 levels amidst a range bound action in the next 1-2 sessions after giving up support at 17650 yesterday.

FII and DII trades: Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) were net sellers of domestic equities for the fourth consecutive trading session. FIIs sold stocks worth Rs 2,225 crore on Thursday. On the other hand, Domestic Institutional Investors (DII) were net buyers for the fourth day straight, pushing Rs 97 crore into domestic equities. 

Paras Defence and Space Technologies listing: Paras Defence and Space Technologies shares will list on BSE and NSE today. The IPO of Paras Defence and Space Technologies saw massive interest from investors across the board, with overall subscription crossing 300 times the size of the IPO.