Indices recover from days low; auto, media and PSU bank stocks supported the market

Market update at 3.30 PM: In the latter half of the session, the indices witnessed a great recovery as Nifty recovered about 93 points from the day’s low. In the end, Nifty slipped about 1 per cent while Sensex tanked 586 points.   

The broader markets, however, ended marginally higher. Among the sectoral indices, Nifty Auto, Nifty Media, and Nifty PSU banks supported the market and ended in green while Nifty IT & Nifty Realty felt the selling pressure.  

UPL and IndusInd Bank emerged as the top gainers while JSW Steel & UltraTech Cement were the top losers.   

Market update at 1 PM: Indices show signs of recovery as Nifty and Sensex are off their day’s low. Nifty has gained about 65 points in the last 30 minutes amid volatility.  However, weakness still persists as broader markets are weaker.  

Nifty Auto and Nifty Media are marginally higher but the rest of the sectoral indices are trading in the red.   

Bharti Airtel and UPL are frontrunners in supporting the market today while Shree Cemen and Adani Ports are the top losers among Nifty 50 stocks.  

Aggressive call writing is done at 17,800, which suggests that market participants don’t expect Nifty to close above 17,800 this expiry.  

Market update at 10 AM: After the gap-down opening, indices continue to trade lower as Nifty has plunged about 1 per cent while Sensex tanked nearly 700 points. The broader markets too are under selling pressure.  

India VIX has surged over 5 per cent due to the sell-off. All the sectoral indices are in red with banking and IT indices tumbling over a per cent each.  

Aggressive call options have been written in the initial hour with 17,800 having maximum call addition today. It remains to be seen whether indices continue to fall or shall witness recovery as the day progresses.  

Pre-market update: The US markets fell drastically after the release of FOMC minutes, which suggested a shrink in the balance sheet. This news came sooner than expected, which led to a sell off. 

Dow Jones slipped about a per cent while NASDAQ fell over 3 per cent! The weakness was seen in Asian markets today in the morning as they have opened lower amid poor global cues. SGX Nifty indicates a gap-down of about 100 points.

On Wednesday, India reported over 58,000 COVID-19 cases. Restrictions are being implemented as schools and colleges have been asked to shut down. 

On the last trading session, both FIIs & DIIs were net buyers as they bought about Rs 336 crore and Rs 1,271 crore worth of equity, respectively. 

Today, being the weekly expiry, we can expect  volatility throughout the day. The 18,000 call option has the highest open interest, followed by 18,100 while in put side, 17,800 holds the maximum open interest. 

With today's gap-down opening, the initial hour becomes an important one to watch for to get an idea about the trend for the rest of the day.