Indian equity benchmarks ended a choppy session stronger powered by gains in oil & gas, IT and pharma shares, though losses in financial and auto scrips limited the upside. Volatility prevailed as traders rushed to settle their positions ahead of the monthly F&O expiry due by the end of the session.
What do the charts suggest for Dalal Street now?
The Nifty has formed a reasonable positive candle on the daily chart, but the overall negative trend remains intact, according to Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities.
“The Nifty is facing resistance around 17,550-17,600 levels, and a sustainable upmove above this hurdle could only open further upside towards 17,800 in the near term,” he said.
ALSO READ
Key barrier
A key barrier to watch out for is at 17,600, the junction of a swing high, a 40-hour exponential moving average and the hourly upper Bollinger Band, said Gaurav Ratnaparkhi, Head of Technical Research, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.
The index will be set to march towards the 17,800 mark in the short term once it takes out the 17,600 hurdle, said Ratnaparkhi, who expects the 17,350-17,300 band to act as near-term support.
Here are key things to know about the market before Friday’s session:
SGX Nifty
At 7:48 am on Friday, Singapore Exchange Nifty futures — an early indicator of the Nifty50 index — were down 128.5 points or 0.7 percent at 17,449, suggesting a gap-down opening ahead on Dalal Street.
Global markets
Equities in other Asian markets fell as a new virus variant added to concerns about growth and interest rates going forward. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.8 percent in early hours.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index tumbled 2.3 percent. China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.4 percent, South Korea’s KOSPI down 0.8 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 1.7 percent and Singapore’s Straits Times down 1.1 percent.
S&P 500 futures were down 0.6 percent in Asian trade on Friday. Wall Street remained shut on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
What to expect on Dalal Street
HDFC Securities’ Shetti believes Thursday’s bounce could aid a comeback by the bulls. “The next two important resistances to be watched in the near term are around 17,600 and 17,800. Buying at lower levels is expected on any dips,” he said.
Santosh Meena, Head of Research at Swastika Investmart, believes the index is trying to respect its 20-week exponential moving average after some correction but the overall texture remains weak.
“One can expect some short-covering towards the critical supply zone of 17,800-17,850. The bearish view will be negated if Nifty manages to sustain above 17,850, else there is a good chance that it may see a further sell-off with critical support at 17,100, followed by next support at 16,700,” he said.
Key levels to watch out for
Nifty50: The index finds immediate support at 17,350 and meets resistance at 17,650, according to Sachin Gupta, AVP-Research at Choice Broking.
Bank Nifty: For the banking index, support is expected at 37,000-36,650 levels and resistance at the 38,000 mark, he said.
FII/DII activity
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net offloaded Indian equities worth Rs 2,300.7 crore on Thursday. However, domestic institutional investors made net purchases of Rs 1,367.8 crore, according to provisional exchange data.
Call/put open interest
The maximum call open interest has shifted to the 17,700 strike price, with more than one lakh contracts, from 18,000. The maximum put open interest is now at 17,500, instead of 17,000, with 1.3 lakh contracts, NSE data shows.
This suggests resistance can be expected at 17,700 and support comes in at 17,500.
Long build-up
Here are five stocks that saw an increase in open interest as well as price, suggesting a build-up of long positions:
| Symbol | Current OI | CMP | Price change (%) | OI change (%) |
| MOTHERSUMI | 1,11,86,000 | 231.05 | 2.23% | 54.44% |
| TATACONSUM | 25,94,700 | 806.9 | 0.85% | 45.60% |
| MARICO | 14,85,000 | 548.5 | 0.49% | 42.76% |
| ULTRACEMCO | 3,55,700 | 7,611.60 | 0.57% | 37.22% |
| INFY | 96,98,700 | 1,722 | 1.49% | 34.95% |
Long unwinding
| Symbol | Current OI | CMP | Price change (%) | OI change (%) |
| JKCEMENT | 28,175 | 3,341.70 | -1.07% | -81.37% |
| ATUL | 11,475 | 8,570 | -0.05% | -55.56% |
| TORNTPOWER | 7,68,000 | 550.05 | -0.36% | -47.46% |
| RECLTD | 89,04,000 | 133.8 | -0.96% | -44.95% |
| BOSCHLTD | 39,000 | 16,787.10 | -1.03% | -44.23% |
(Decrease in open interest and price)
Short-covering
| Symbol | Current OI | CMP | Price change (%) | OI change (%) |
| APLLTD | 4,62,550 | 786.25 | 0.58% | -47.21% |
| TATAMOTORS | 1,47,97,200 | 495 | 0.94% | -46.84% |
| GRASIM | 8,93,000 | 1,765 | 0.98% | -41.28% |
| GMRINFRA | 3,31,42,500 | 39.45 | 0.38% | -38.90% |
| CHAMBLFERT | 2,68,500 | 401.2 | 5.54% | -34.64% |
Short build-up
| Symbol | Current OI | CMP | Price change (%) | OI change (%) |
| LT | 26,78,925 | 1,850.85 | -0.67% | 43.79% |
| AMBUJACEM | 38,58,000 | 389.9 | -0.85% | 39.15% |
| SHREECEM | 51,800 | 26,585.85 | -0.97% | 37.21% |
| ASIANPAINT | 6,54,750 | 3,137 | -0.52% | 36.01% |
| MARUTI | 4,37,700 | 7,595 | -1.01% | 32.85% |
(Increase in open interest and decrease in price)
52-week highs
Escorts, Torrent Power, Carborundum Universal, GlaxoSmithKline Pharma, Chalet Hotels and Raymond were among the 13 stocks in the BSE 500 index that hit 52-week highs.
52-week lows
Four stocks in the broadest gauge on the bourse hit the trough: Hero MotoCorp, Colgate Palmolive, Spandana Sphoorty Financial and Swan Energy.
Fear gauge
NSE’s India VIX index — which gauges the expectation of volatility in the near term — eased 2.5 percent to 16.7 on Thursday, after surging as much as 5.7 percent during the session.
First Published: IST
