Sensex, Nifty recoup intraday losses, take gaining streak to 4 days; here’s what moved indices today

Sensex and Nifty witnessed a volatile trading session but managed to end with gains, taking their winning streak to the fourth-day straight. S&P BSE Sensex ended 163 points or 0.40% higher at 40,707 points while the 50-stock Nifty managed to close above the 11,900 mark. Power Grid Corporation was the top index gainer, up 4.6%, followed by Bharti Airtel and Tata Steel. Volatility was high, as Sensex finished 557 pints higher from the day’s low and 269 points lower from the intraday high. India VIX was up over 1%, closing just below 23 levels.

Top gainers: While top Sensex gainers included Power Grid and Bharti Airtel, among BSE Midcap constituents Godrej Properties and Aditya Birla Capital were the best performers. The BSE Smallcap index ended flat but Sobha Limited and Man Industries gained close to 12% each.

Volatile session: During the day, Sensex climbed as high as 40,976 points while Nifty breached the 12,000 mark. However, soon erased all gains and were seen trading with losses, only to end the day with gains. India VIX jumped to as high as 23.55 during the day. “Indices managed to close in the Green today but not without its share of hiccups over rumours on waiver of interest on loans. Banks & Metals provided support even as we saw profit booking in several stocks during afternoon trade. Select PSU names were sought after by funds in today’s volatile session,” said S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities.

Global watch: Major Asian stock markets, except Shanghai Composite ended with gains on Wednesday. “Dow Futures and Nasdaq Futures were flat, whereas FTSE were down by 1.1%. Next few days, market action will be dependent on the result announcement, global cues and news around the relief package planned by the Government,” said Keshav Lahoti- Associate Equity Analyst, Angel Broking.

Sectoral view: Nifty Realty and Nifty Metal indices were the top gainers on Wednesday, followed by Nifty bank. Meanwhile, Nifty FMCG, IT, and Media were the drags. 4 sectoral indices ended with losses while all other registered gains.

Technical take: Chartists say that the reason for today’s decline mid-session was purely technical. “The strike of 12000 continued to see maximum accumulation of CALL OI despite the markets moving past that figure. This led to sharp profit taking bout in the middle of the session. From the technical perspective, the Nifty has stayed within the range of Thursday’s trade and spent the remaining 3 sessions after that within that range. Further, not moving past the 12000 level also reinforced that level as a crucial resistance point,” said Milan Vaishnav, CMT, MSTA, Consulting Technical Analyst, Gemstone Equity Research & Advisory Services.