Sensex closes flat with positive bias, Nifty may rally only after crossing 17626; check support, resistance

Bulls and bears continued to battle it out on Dalal Street on Wednesday only for headline indices to close in the green, extending their up-move to their second day straight. At the end of the day, S&P BSE Sensex added 54 points or 0.9% to settle at 59,085 while the NSE Nifty 50 index jumped 27 points or 0.16% to close at 17,604. Bank Nifty zoomed 0.88% to close above 39,000 while India VIX dropped 3% to settle at 18.43. Tata Steel was the top laggard on Sensex, falling 1.26%, followed by Titan and TCS — all Tata group stocks. IndusInd Bank was up 2.9% as the top gainer, accompanied by NTPC and ICICI Bank. 

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities-

Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities–

“The index remained choppy during the day as the Nifty moved within bands of 17500 and 17600. The daily RSI is in bearish crossover. However, it has sustained above the important near term moving average during the day. The trend for the short term looks sideward. On the higher end, resistance is visible at 17700; whereas on the lower end, support is visible at 17500/17400.”

Ashish Gupta, Volatility Trader and Derivatives Expert –

“Markets seem to be consolidating and while Nifty 50 traded in a tight range of 120 points to close flat at 17600, Bank Nifty was an outperformer today and gained 0.9% for the day and closed above 39000. Midcap and small-cap stocks also outperformed with both the Nifty midcap 100 and small-cap 100 gaining more than half a per cent. From the F&O space, RBL Bank was the top gainer and rose as much as 20% during the day and closed 17% higher while Lupin was the worst performer and closed 2.5% lower for the day.”

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Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services –

“Bulls and bears continued to battle it out in the domestic market as weak global cues persisted, keeping the market under pressure. The US economy contracted amid muted demand conditions with the service sector witnessing a sharp decline. Markets in Europe experienced a protracted sell-off as a result of investor’s concern over the oil crisis and the uncertain growth outlook.”

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Ajit Mishra, VP – Research, Religare Broking –

“Markets traded lackluster in a narrow range and ended marginally higher amid muted cues. The move was largely in sync with the global indices however a mixed trend on the sectoral front kept the participants busy. We expect volatility to remain high due to the scheduled derivatives expiry of August month contracts. Besides, the caution ahead of the Jackson Hole symposium will continue to weigh on sentiment. Amid all, we recommend continuing with a stock-specific approach and focusing more on overnight risk management.”