Benchmarks Nifty and Sensex may open flat on Wednesday amid mixed cues from the global markets. With US stocks ending mixed - Dow closing lower even as S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended firm - global markets including India are looking for clear direction.
SGX Nifty at 18,110 indicates flat opening as Nifty futures on Tuesday closed at 18,088.80 on the NSE.
Analysts expect the market to see consolidation further in a broader range. With the Budget around the corner, the focus will be on individual stocks and sectors, they said.
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Ruchit Jain, Lead Research, 5paisa.com, said, “Our market has been consolidating within a range since last few weeks, but finally, it seems that the index is geared for the next directional move. The stock-specific momentum has started picking up as we are just a couple of weeks away from the Budget session.”
FII’s, as they have been sellers in the cash segment, have formed short positions in the index futures segment too. It would be important to see if they cover their short positions going forward as much of other global data is positive, he added.
Most Asia-Pacific stocks are up in early deal on Wednesday except Korea.
The market is expected to remain sideways due to a lack of triggers, said Siddhartha Khemka, Head, Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.
While domestic macros have been positive along with good results so far, continuous FII selling has kept the upside limited. “Apart from the result season, the upcoming Union Budget could provide some direction to market and specific sectors like Capital goods, Infra, cement, defence, etc. FMCG stocks are witnessing buying interest on back of cool down in inflation and expectation of better Q3FY23 results,” he said, adding, “Oil companies can see some momentum after government cut windfall taxes on crude oil and exports of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and diesel.”