Sensex, Nifty end in red for 3rd day in a row, dragged by hawkish Fed; momentum weak, watch this key support

Sensex, Nifty end in red for 3rd day in a row, dragged by hawkish Fed; momentum weak, watch this key support

Indian benchmark indices closed in the red, with BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty falling about 0.8% each, weighed down by heavyweights including ITC, Reliance Industries, HDFC twins, TCS, and Tech Mahindra. This was the third straight day of losses for the markets. The BSE Sensex ended at 61,144, down 518 points, while the NSE Nifty 50 ended at 18,153, down 153 points. Volatility gauge, India VIX, ended at 14.80, up 2.8 points. All of Nifty’s sectoral indices ended in the red, except Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Media. The indices were dragged by heightened fears of US Fed monetary policy tightening and rate hikes as well as the rising dollar and COVID-related lockdowns in China.

Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst, LKP Securities

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Osho Krishan, Sr. Analyst – Technical & Derivative Research, Angel One

Technically speaking, the current placement of the index is at a crucial level now, which is also highly anticipated to be a strong demand zone. The market sentiments are still upbeat, and till the index manages to sustain above the 18,100-18,000 zone, dips could be seen as a buying opportunity for the participants. As far as levels are concerned, the psychological mark of 18,000 is likely to act as the sheet anchors’ role, before which 18,100 could provide a pitstop to the cool-off in the index. On the higher end, 18,250-18,300 is the intermediate resistance, followed by the sturdy hurdle of 18,450-18,500.

Going forward, the index is likely to trade within the mentioned range in the comparable period, and any decisive breach on either side could only dictate the near-term trend. From here on, selective stocks could outperform the market; hence, we advocate the participants to be strictly selective and grasp the stock-specific approach for better trading opportunities.

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities

Investors globally fretted about the economic fallout from fresh COVID-19 restrictions in China, with resulting risk aversion benefiting bonds and the dollar and about the likelihood of future monetary tightening and the impact on future economic growth. Broad market indices did better than the Nifty even though the advance decline ratio closed much below 1:1. Nifty could now take support from the up-gap of 18,103 and later 17,959 and bounce up a bit.