The market ended flat in a highly volatile session on February 23. At close, the Sensex was up 7.09 points, or 0.01 percent, at 49,751.41, and the Nifty was up 32.10 points, or 0.22 percent, at 14,707.80.
The nifty Metal index rose nearly 4 percent, while energy and infra indices added 1-2 percent each. Broader markets outperformed the benchmarks, with BSE midcap and smallcap indices rising 0.7-1 percent.
Tata Steel, Tata Motors, ONGC, Hindalco and UPL were among the top gainers, while losers included Kotak Mahindra Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, Adani Ports and Divis Labs.
“Index managed to hold above 14,700 zone and closed a day with small gains forming a Doji candle pattern on the daily chart after five consecutive bearish candles. The index has good support near the 14,630 zone and immediate resistance is near 14,800 zone so the index may show some sort of consolidation in this range. The final direction will be clear once we see a beakout on either side breakout,” said Rohit Singre, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities.
Here is what experts say investors should do on February 24:
Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research at Kotak Securities
Markets logged small gains after a sharp decline in the last five sessions. Most of the time such type of formation works as a continuation and on Wednesday, if the market breaks the 14,630 for Nifty and 49,600 level for the Sensex, it could fall further on the support of 14,530 and 49,300 levels respectively. However, a 50 percent retracement shown by the Nifty and Sensex after the announcement of the Union Budget could be a reversal for the market.
In short, there should be a buying strategy if the Nifty and Sensex falls to the 14,530/14500 levels, however, if the Nifty closes below the 14,500 level, it would indicate further weakness. On the upside, 14,850 and 50,350 and 14,950 and 50,750 levels would be the major obstacles. While the metals sector performed well till date, bank stocks failed to perform due to exceptional strength in long-term bond yields.
Keshav Lahoti, Associate Equity Analyst, Angel Broking Ltd
Indian shares opened on a positive note after steep losses in the previous session on concerns over rising COVID-19 cases and a surge in oil prices but closed flat for the day. Although, Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 closed up by 1 percent. Jet Airways jumped 5 percent after the National Company Law Tribunal is expected to begin hearing the resolution plan of the grounded airline for approval today. Bharat Forge rallied 3.4 percent after it joined hands with Paramount Group to manufacture armoured vehicles.
Global cues were negative with Dow Futures and FTSE flat, whereas Nasdaq Futures was down by 1.2 percent.
Mazhar Mohammad, Founder & Chief Market Strategist at chartviewindia.in
Bulls seem to be drawing some comfort from 34 EMA (around 14,600 levels) which has offered support in the past on a couple of occasions. Moreover, as bulls managed to defend last Monday’s low of 14,635 levels before signing off the session with a Spinning Top kind of indecisive formation the index can be expected to consolidate inside the range of 14,600 to 15,000 levels. Meanwhile, for intraday traders 14,854 can act as an initial hurdle and if bulls manage to push the index beyond the said level then the strength may get expanded towards 15,000 levels.
However, the index shall remain vulnerable to a sell-off if it breaches 14,600 levels on a closing basis. In such a scenario it can be dragged down towards its 50-Day EMA whose value is placed around 14,370 levels. For time being, as the index seems to be directionless, traders are advised to remain neutral whereas shorting opportunity should be considered below 14,600 levels with a stop above intraday high.
Chandan Taparia, Vice President | Analyst-Derivatives at Motilal Oswal Financial Services
Nifty index opened gap up and took support near to 14,650 levels. It respected to previous day’s low but failed to hold above the immediate hurdle of 14,850 zones and drifted lower. The index finally closed the session with gains of around 40 points after the profit booking declines of the last five trading sessions. Till it remains below 14,850 zones, weakness could continue towards the next key support of 14,600 and 14,500 zones, while on the upside hurdles are seen at 15,000 and 15,150 zones.
On the option front, maximum Put OI is at 14,000 followed by 14,500 strike while maximum Call OI is at 15,000 followed by 14,800 strike. We witnessed Put writing at 14,700 and 14,600 strikes while Call writing was seen 14,800 then 14,700 strike followed by unwinding in 15,500 strike. Option data suggests a wider trading range in between 14,300 to 15,200 zones while an immediate range between 14,500 to 15,000 zones. For Bank Nifty, till it remains below 35,700 zone, weakness may continue towards 34,500 and 34,250 zones while on the upside major hurdle shifts to 36,000 zones.
Manish Hathiramani, proprietary index trader and technical analyst at Deen Dayal Investments
Nifty gave up most of its gains as the day progressed. The weakness continues to remain in the short term and we can expect the index to slide further to levels closer to 14,500. Any rally upwards can be used to short this market for lower targets. The upside is capped at 15,000 -15,100 and until we do not get past that comfortably, the markets will remain bearish.
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