Benchmark indices have recovered to trade flat from Thursday’s fall after the RBI MPC meet. BSE Sensex was up 113.31 pts or 0.16 per cent to trade at 71,541.74 as of 9:34 am, and Nifty 50 was trading at 21,768.15, up 50.20 pts or 0.23 per cent.
However, majority of the sectoral indices traded in red. Nifty Oil & Gas was down by 1.51 per cent at 11,527.65; Nifty Metal declined by 1.26 per cent at 8,118.20; and Nifty PSU Bank fell 1.03 per cent at 6,807.90.
Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said, “When valuations are high the bears will use any negative news to push the market down. The slightly negative news, from the market perspective, came yesterday in the slightly hawkish comments of the RBI Governor.” He added that the good news that the economy is doing better than expected and a GDP growth projection of 7 per cent and CPI inflation of 4.5 per cent for FY 25 were ignored.
“The selling was aggravated with FIIs, too, running with the bears. There is a significant build-up in the short position of FIIs. This normally happens along with the rise in the US 10-year bond yields which is now at 4.15 per cent,” Vijaykumar added.
Commenting on the nifty outlook, Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said, “Though the positive vibes of the early part of the week have been fully lost, signs of a deep dive to 21300-20800 are still not there. And yet, downside momentum appears stronger and gains are likely to be capped underscoring the distribution that we highlighted yesterday. However, a push above 21,900 could shrug off the negativity.”
Vaishali Parekh, Vice President - Technical Research, Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt, pointed out, “The index would have the next major support at 21,500 zone which needs to be sustained and upside for the bias to improve, at least it needs to close above the 21,800 zone to improve the bias overall. The support for the day is seen at 21,600 while the resistance is seen at 21,850.”
On the NSE, major gainers were Apollo Hospitals, TCS, Reliance Industries, Titan and Bajaj Finance. Stocks such as BPCL, ONGC, Hindalco, Coal India, and UPL were the major laggards.