Dalal Street Corner: Market ends flat even as FII selling nears exhaustion; what should investors do on Friday?

After gaining by more than half per cent in the morning trade, the Indian market declined amid weak global cues to end flat with negative bias on Thursday.  

Apart from global markets, the weakness came from broader markets and select sectors. Underperforming the benchmark indices, Nifty midcap and smallcap declined 0.82% and 0.46% as broader market stocks witnessed profit booking. Besides, Metal stocks were also put to a test as the index ended lower by almost two per cent on Thursday. Besides, Nifty IT, PSU Bank, Auto and Realty, all declined over one percent contributing to the weakness.  

FIIs selling slowed down in the past three sessions with FIIs selling just over Rs 850 crore in the Indian market on June 29. "The decline in FPI selling to Rs 851 crore yesterday from the June average of around Rs 2700 crore also can be interpreted as early signs of selling exhaustion," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.  

Earlier, benchmarks ended marginally lower as Nifty50 slipped below 15,800, while the Sensex dropped merely 8 points to end near the 53,000-mark.  

Meanwhile, the market breadth remained negative on Thursday with 1,369 shares advancing and 1,907 declining on the BSE. A total of 144 shares were unchanged. 

Meanwhile, as the market continues to be governed by global triggers, here is what experts make of the current trends in the domestic market.  

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services 

Shaking off a weak lead from the global market, domestic indices recouped its losses backed by banking and energy stocks. Asian and European markets struggled to regain footing amid global recession fears, leading to a resurgent US dollar, which benefitted from safe-haven demand. FII selling nearing exhaustion provided comfort to the jittery Indian market" 

Kunal Shah, Senior Technical & Derivative Analyst at LKP Securities. 

The Nifty index is stuck in a sideways trend where the immediate support is placed at 15,700 and resistance is at 15,900 level. The index once breaches the level of 15,900 on the upside will see sharp short covering on the upside towards 16,200 levels. The lower-end support if broken can see a fall towards 15,500-15,400 zone where fresh put writing has been seen. 

The fight between the bears and the bulls continued in the Bank nifty index which led the index closed on a flat note on the last day of monthly expiry. The immediate support on the downside is placed at 33,200-33,000 zone and the upside resistance is placed at 34,000 where a significant amount of call writing has been observed. The index needs to break out of this range on either side for getting a directional move

Gaurav Ratnaparkhi, Head of Technical Research, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas 

The Nifty has been trading in a range of 15700-15900 for the last few sessions. The hourly Bollinger Bands have contracted, which is in line with the consolidation. On the downside, the key hourly moving averages continue to absorb selling pressure. Near term support zone is placed around 15700-15650. As long as the Nifty stays above this zone, the consolidation is ultimately expected to resolve on the upside. The rising channel on the hourly chart is in sync with the short-term positive stance. On the higher side, the index is expected to test 16000 in the short term. 

V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services. 

In the near-term market movement will be increasingly influenced by the FY23 Q1 results expected from the second week of July onwards. Results of banking, IT and autos (PVs and CVs particularly) are likely to be good and those of metals, cement and some FMCG may disappoint.

(Disclaimer: The views/suggestions/advice expressed here in this article are solely by investment experts. Zee Business suggests its readers to consult with their investment advisers before making any financial decision.)