Sharp crack in Asian counterparts send shiver down the spine of investors on D-Street

Market Update at 12:38 PM: A sharp crack in the Asian counterparts creates panic on D-Street. As a result, the index has seen a sharp sell-off. Nifty slipped below the 15,800 mark while Sensex dropped below the 52,700 mark.   

Among Asian peers, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is down by more than 4 per cent while China’s Shanghai Composite too witnessed losses of nearly 2.5 per cent.   

The market breadth is pretty much even-steven on D-Street as once again, Nifty Smallcap 100 is seen outperforming as it is up by 0.29 per cent. Meanwhile, Nifty Midcap 100 is down by 0.33 per cent.   

Among the sectoral indices, Nifty Pharma is down by a staggering 2.93 per cent. On the other hand, Nifty Metal jumps 1.1 per cent.   

SGX Nifty is trading up by 29 points at the 15,850 level, indicating a positive opening for Indian markets.   

It was an interesting day of session on Monday as Nifty opened the session flat with a negative bias amid sell-off that was witnessed among its Asian peers. However, soon after that, it made an attempt to rebound but selling pressure emerged at higher levels and thus, Nifty was pushed back into negative terrain. As a result, it ended the day with a marginal loss of 0.20 per cent.   

The price action of the day formed a bearish candle on the daily chart as its closing was lower than the opening. Furthermore, as price traded within the range of prior trading sessions, it resulted in the formation of an inside bar.   

Overall, Nifty continues to trade in the range, which it has been doing for the last month or so. Now, for a directional move to emerge, the index needs to break out in either direction of the range. On the upside, the level of 15,950-16,000 is a strong resistance zone while on the downside, the zone of 15,450-15,550 is a strong support zone.   

As long as the index continues to trade in this range, traders can adopt a stock-specific approach. On Tuesday, Friday's high of 15,899 and the low of 15,768 are likely to act as immediate resistance and support, respectively. Hence, watch out for these levels.