Dalal Street Corner: Nifty reclaims key sentimental level of 17000; what should investors do on Friday?

The buying spree in the Indian markets continued for the third consecutive session amid positive global cues as the Sensex rose nearly 400 points, and the Nifty50 settled above the 17050-mark, led by the auto, FMCG and IT stocks. The market breadth favours advances, advance-decline ratio is at 2:1. 

Even the broader markets surged as mid-cap gained almost 1 per cent and small-cap up over 1 per cent at the market close. While the Nifty Bank closed 161 points or 0.46 per cent higher than the 35191-mark, the State Bank of India and Axis Bank held the banking index in the green.  

Of 50 scrips n Nifty, 35 stocks advanced and 15 declined at the market close. PSU stocks such as Power Grid, IOC, and ONGC are the top three gainers, each up between 2.5-4 per cent. On the contrary, Divis Lab and JSW Steel each slipped almost 2 per cent, being the top losers at the market close.   

In the broader markets, Metropolis, L&T Info, SAIL, MCX, Dixon, JK Cement are top midcap losers. While Biocon rose 4 per cent ahead of the company’s corporate announcement; Jubilant Food closes with a gain of 3 per cent on reports of price hike and PSU banks jumped as reports suggest the government mulling reducing stake in PSBs to 26 per cent. 

In the IPO segment, MedPlus Health shares made a stock market debut on Thursday with at least 30 per cent premium at Rs 1040 per share on the NSE and over 27 per cent premium at Rs 1015 per share on the BSE as against an upper end of the issue price of Rs 796 per share. 

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, “Domestic bourses continued to trade firm mirroring an upbeat mood in the global markets led by gains in realty, financials and IT stocks, while broader markets strengthened.” 

He added, “The US third-quarter GDP expanded at an annualized 2.3 per cent, which is higher than expected. Reports on reduced risk of hospitalization and severity of Omicron as compared to the delta variant has supported the upward momentum along with favourable US economic data.” 

Vijay Dhanotiya, Senior Research Analyst at CapitalVia Global Research Limited said, “The market research suggests that sustaining above 17000 will be an important level for the market to stay positive in the short term.” 

If the market is able to sustain the level of 17000, we can witness a positive momentum in the market which can lead to higher levels near 17400, he added.  

“17150-17250 is a resistance zone and we are shying away from those levels. Once we close above 17250, there will be renewed confidence in trading on the buy-side,” Manish, proprietary index trader, and technical analyst, Deen Dayal Investments. 

According to Hathiramani, the support for the Nifty is at 16800-16900 and if that breaks, we will retest the recent lows.