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Taking Stock | Sensex, Nifty end lower after hitting record highs; mid, smallcaps suffer more – Moneycontrol

The market ended its three-day winning streak as investors embarked on profit-booking after a stellar bull run in the market which shot up the valuation of many stocks higher.

The market opened in the green and traded higher in the first half of the session amid positive global cues.

Besides, positive reports on the front of vaccination also underpinned sentiment. Reports suggest India’s pace of vaccination has gained momentum since last month with more than one crore daily COVID-19 vaccinations being completed for the fourth time today.

India will complete administering as many as 100 crore (one billion) COVID-19 vaccine doses by mid-October, news agency ANI quoted sources as saying on September 17.

Equity benchmarks the Sensex and the Nifty hit their fresh record highs of 59,737.32 and 17,792.95 in intraday trade.

In sync with the benchmarks, second-rung indices the BSE Midcap and smallcap, too, hit their fresh record highs of 25,435.39 and 28,456.9, respectively.

However, all these indices cooled off and ended lower as investors trimmed their positions in the recent outperformers.

Sensex closed 125 points, or 0.21 percent, lower at 59,015.89 while the Nifty finished at 17,585.15, down 44 points, or 0.25 percent.

BSE Midcap index fell 1.14 percent and the smallcap index closed with a loss of 1.06 percent.

“While the pace of vaccination and encouraging export data helped bulls get closer to the 60,000 mark amidst the FTSE & MSCI rebalancing of flows, profit-taking took away all the gains ahead of the GST council meet,” S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP securities, pointed out.

Sectors and stocks

Among the sectors, Nifty PSU Bank fell 3 percent, followed by metal and realty indices which fell over 2 percent each. On the other hand, Nifty Media climbed a percent. Bank and financial services indices rose up to half a percent.

More than 230 stocks, including Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Larsen & Toubro, SBI and Titan, have hit their fresh 52-week highs in intraday trade on BSE on September 17.

Nearly 280 stocks, including Coffee Day Enterprises, Jindal Poly Investment and Finance Company, Grand Foundry, California Software, Sical Logistics, MRO-TEK Realty, Rohit Ferro Tech and Lancer Container Lines, hit their upper circuits in intraday trade on BSE.

Tech view

Nifty ended in the red but formed a bullish candle on the weekly chart.

Sachin Gupta, AVP, Research, Choice Broking is of the view that the bullish trend of the market is still intact as the Nifty is holding gains above 17,250.

Although we can expect some fight between bulls and bears, every dip would be a buying opportunity, Gupta said.

At present, Nifty may find resistance around 17,800 while on the downside, 17,400 may act as support for the index, he said.

As per Rohit Singre, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities, Nifty has witnessed good profit-booking and formed a dark cloud-cover sort of candle pattern on the daily chart which is considered to be a bearish reversal pattern by nature so any break below 17,530 may drag down the index.

“Immediate support is still placed at 17,500, followed by 17,430 and resistance is near 17,650-17,750. Profit-booking is suggested around the mentioned hurdle zone,” said Singre.

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.