HDFC Securities highlights that 14977-15078 could be the next support band for Nifty and on rise, 15315 could act as short-term resistance

HDFC Securities says that Indian benchmark equity indices ended in the negative territory for the third consecutive session on February 18.  Profit booking set in the second half of the trading session,   Nifty fell after making an intraday high of 15250 in the morning session. At close, the Nifty was down 90 points or 0.59% at 15118.
 
On the Nifty50 index, ONGC, GAIL, BPCL, NTPC, and IOC were the top gainers while Bajaj Finance, Tata Motors, M&M, Kotak Bank and Shree Cement led the losers.
 

See Zee Business Live TV Streaming Below:

Among sectors PSU Bank, IT gained the most, while Financial and Auto fell the most. Compared to benchmark indices, the broader indices like Midcap and Small cap index continued to rally and finished the day higher by 0.47% and 0.96% respectively.
 
Major Asian markets ended in red on Thursday as investors sold to lock in profits from the recent rally. Rising bond yields and a surge in crude prices weighed on sentiments. European markets are trading flat today following the sharp losses of yesterday.
 
Nifty closed well below its short-term averages for the first time since the union budget suggesting more weakness may follow. However, positive advance-decline ratio and buoyancy in the Midcap and small-cap Indices suggest investors are rotating money away from larger stocks.  14977-15078 could be the next support band for Nifty. On rise, 15315 could act as short-term resistance.
 
The weakness continued in the market for the second consecutive session on Thursday and Nifty closed the day lower by 89 points. After opening on a slightly positive note, the market made an attempt to sustain the highs in the early part of the session. The intraday weakness started from an early part and Nifty shifted into a weakness amidst a range movement for the better part of the session.
 
The overall market breadth was positive despite decline in Nifty and broad market indices like mid cap and small cap of NSE have closed higher by 0.47% and 0.96% respectively. This is a positive indication and signal lack of inherent strength in current market declines.
 
The minor positive sequence of higher highs and lows is intact until Nifty sustains above 14977 levels. Nifty is currently placed at the immediate support of 10 period EMA at 15085.
 
Conclusion: The short term trend of Nifty is down amidst a range movement. Lack of strength in decline and positive market breadth could indicate possibility of a comeback of bulls from the lower levels. We expect Nifty to show upside bounce from the lows of around 15000 levels in the next 1-2 sessions. On the flip side, a decisive move below 14950 is likely to trigger more weakness in the near term.