Market Wrap: Nifty tops 17,800, Sensex up 170 points; power, realty, IT stocks gain

Headline indices settled 0.25 per cent higher on April 26 amid buying in power, capital goods, IT, and realty stocks. The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 60,300.58, up 0.28 per cent while the NSE's Nifty shut shop at 17,813.60, up 0.25 per cent.

"The domestic bourses mirrored the mood on Wall Street as soft economic data and underwhelming earnings dragged US equities to a weak close yesterday. However, the market gradually recovered after an uptick in US futures, with the earnings of tech companies providing support. Adding to investors' concerns about a possible recession, the US consumer confidence data for April hit a nine-month low ahead of the upcoming Fed policy meeting," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

On the Sensex pack, Powergrid (up 2.5 per cent) was the top gainer while Baja Finserv (down nearly a per cent) was the biggest laggard. 

On the technical front, "The Nifty bulls managed to hold the support of 17,700 after the gap-down opening and the index recovered fully at the end of the session. The momentum remains strong and one should keep a buy approach and expect targets of 18,000/18,200 in the near term. The monthly expiry indicates resistance at 18,000 where the highest open interest is built up on the call side," said Kunal Shah, Senior Technical & Derivative Analyst at LKP Securities.