Dalal Street Corner: Nifty, Sensex end lower in range-bound market, drop around 0.50% this week; what should investors do on Monday?

The domestic equity markets ended around half per cent lower for the week ended February 18 amid volatility and weak global cues. Benchmarks largely traded range-bound as developments related to Russia-Ukraine crisis kept the markets in check throughout this week, barring a couple of sessions.  

Barometer Sensex and Nifty closed 0.10% and 0.16% lower on Friday as the former settled with 59 points loss to 57,832.97 and the latter ended below 17,300 to 17, 276.  

Realty, oil & gas, Pharma and media were seen under pressure, while the banking and financial services shares marginally gained in the falling market. 

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ONGC, Cipla, Divis Laboratories, Ultratech Cement, Shree Cement, Infosys, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance declined, while Coal India, HDFC Ltd, ONGC, Bajaj Auto, L&T, Axis Bank, State Bank, Kotak Bank, Dr Reddy's gained on the two indices on the last trading session of this week.  

Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities, says chart hints at bullish reversal.  

"On the daily chart of Nifty, an inverted hammer pattern has formed, which often indicates a bullish reversal. On the lower end, 17200 may act as support for the falling market," says Rupak De 

He said rhe trend is likely to remain bullish in the days to come as long Nifty holds on to 17200. "On the higher end, crucial resistance is placed at 17500," he adds. 

Domestic equities struggled for a firm direction in today’s volatile trade as the market opened low taking cues from yesterday’s sell-off in Wall Street following the release of FOMC meeting minutes, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services. 

"Reports that the US Secretary of State agreed to meet the Russian foreign minister in order to ease tension helped the domestic market to wipe-off early losses though sell-off was seen in late hours. As current global cues are forcing global equities to remain unstable, the domestic market is also expected to continue its volatile trend in the coming days," said Nair.