Sensex falls as investors eye US retail inflation data; Nifty support seen at 15800 for weekly F&O expiry day

Sensex falls as investors eye US retail inflation data; Nifty support seen at 15800 for weekly F&O expiry day

BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 erased all the early morning gains and ended more than 0.5% per cent down on Wednesday, one day before weekly F&O expiry. Investors remained cautious ahead of the key US retail inflation data due later tonight. BSE Sensex ended 373 points or 0.7 per cent down at 53,514, while NSE Nifty 50 plunged 0.6 per cent or 92 points to settle at 15,966. Stocks of index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), HDFC Bank, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), TCS , and ICICI Bank contributed the most to the indices’ fall. Broader markets outperformed equity frontliners. S&P BSE MidCap fell 73 points or 0.3 per cent, while S&P BSE Smallcap ended flat with a negative bias.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services

Sahaj Agrawal, Head of Research – Derivatives, Kotak Securities

Nifty is expected to consolidate in the near term as there are contradictory signals accross time frames. Expect 16500 to be tested in the next few weeks. Selective particiation is expected – Banking and FMCG remain positive while IT, Metals and Energy stocks continue to remain weak.

Om Mehra, Technical Associate, Choice Broking

After a decent upside rally Index has closed on the lower side for consecutive days suggesting bears are holding their grip. Also Index might face high volatility on weekly expiry day. Riding against the trend may not be beneficial for short term traders. According to volume profile 15850 and 15800 may act as immediate support. Indicators such as MACD and RSI are indicating weakness in the daily time frame. Coming to the OI Data, on the call side, the highest OI observed at 16200 followed by 16100 strike price while on the put side, the highest OI was at 15800 followed by 15700 strike price. Overall, Index looks weak on chart; sell on rise would be advisable in coming days until 16160 level is attained.

Kunal Shah, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities

The Bank Nifty index breached the immediate support of 35,000 and witnessed continuous selling pressure throughout the day. It remains in a sell mode and is likely to test the next support of 34,400 on the downside. The upside resistance is at 35,500 and once this level is taken out traders should place aggressive bets on the long side.