Indices close marginally higher; metal and pharma outperform
Market update at 3.30 PM: Indices ended higher for the fifth consecutive day as Nifty closed at 18,257, up by 0.25 per cent while Sensex gained over 125 points. Nifty Midcap as well as Nifty Smallcap also remained firm throughout the day and ended in the green.
Among the sectoral indices, Nifty Metal displayed a phenomenal performance today and surged nearly 3.5 per cent while Nifty Pharma gained about 1.57 per cent. The top gainers for the day include Tata Steel & JSW Steel while Wipro and Asian Paints showed a dismal performance.
As suggested by the options data, Nifty ended in between 18,200 and 18,300. With corporate results aligned in the next couple of days, Nifty is expected to be volatile on Friday.
Market update at 1 PM: On Thursday, indices are seen trading flat in the first half of the trading session. However, the broader indices of Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap are trading relatively higher.
Among the sectors, the indices of pharma, PSU banks, FMCG, and media are trading higher whereas, private banks, IT, auto & realty are weaker today. Meanwhile, India VIX slipped over 1.5 per cent.
Around 1,004 stocks are advancing while 873 remained weak as the day progresses. Tata Steel & Sun Pharma have become the top gainers among Nifty stocks while Wipro and Maruti Suzuki are dragging the market down.
The highest open interest is at 18,200 on the put side while 18,300 has the highest open interest on the call side. Thus, we can expect Nifty to end the weekly expiry in this range.
Market update at 10.35 AM: Nifty has lost its early gains and is now trading marginally lower. Sensex has slipped by 50 points. The broader indices are also trading flat.
India VIX has crashed about 1 per cent. Among the sectoral indices, the indices of auto, IT, banks & realty are down whereas, media, metal, and pharma indices are trading higher. The major contributor to Nifty IT downfall is Wipro, which has fallen over 5 per cent..
In the first hour of the trading session, the highest addition of open interest has been seen at 18,300 calls while straddles have been created at 18,200.
Pre-market update: Last night, the US markets closed marginally higher. Following the bullish view, the Asian markets have opened higher on Thursday morning with SGX Nifty indicating a gap-up of about 120 points.
India’s CPI inflation stood at 5.59 per cent, which was higher-than-expected.
The IT companies such as TCS, Infosys, and Wipro declared their results post market hours on Wednesday. Thus, these stocks will be in focus today.
In the last trading session, the FIIs had turned net sellers and sold about Rs 1,001 crore while DIIs turned net buyers and bought equity worth about Rs 1,332 crore.
The 18,500 has the highest open interest in the call side while 17,700 strike holds maximum open interest in put side. A huge open interest additions were made at 18,100 and 18,200 in the put side on Wednesday.
Today, being the weekly expiry, Nifty is expected to be volatile. Also, the initial hour of the session becomes significant to anticipate further movement as the session progresses.