Ahead of Market: 10 things that will decide D-St action on Friday

NEW DELHI: Tracking positive global cues, Indian equities ended with gains for the second consecutive day on Thursday. Nifty, with gains of 58 points, ended the session at 17,332. Sectorally, all indices except FMCG and pharma ended in the green, while the metal pack emerged as the outlier, with Nifty Metal gaining over 3%.

Here's how analysts read the market pulse:

Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said: “Positive global cues and FIIs turning net buyers in the last two days gave strength to the Indian equities. Nifty opened the gap up and remained positive throughout the session. However, there was slight pressure towards the last hour of the trade with Nifty cooling off from 17,400 zones”.

Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst, HDFC Securities, said: "The short-term uptrend of Nifty remains intact, and there is a possibility of minor consolidation in the next 1-2 sessions around the hurdle of 17400-17500 levels before showing a decisive upside breakout of the said resistance. Immediate support is placed at 17220 levels”.

That said, here’s a look at what some key indicators are suggesting for Friday’s action:

Wall Street drops
Wall Street's main indexes fell on Thursday on worries about persistent inflation and the Federal Reserve's aggressive rate-hike cycle, while shares of Tesla fell on worries over funding for Elon Musk's proposed buyout of Twitter.

Before dropping, markets briefly took comfort from data which showed an increase in weekly jobless claims as it raised hopes of the Fed likely to go easy with its rapid rate hikes. At 10:24 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 210.92 points, or 0.70%, at 30,062.95, the S&P 500 was down 27.30 points, or 0.72%, at 3,755.98, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 74.81 points, or 0.67%, at 11,073.83.

European stocks close lower
European stocks closed lower on Thursday following a choppy trading session. The pan-European Stoxx 600 ended the session down 0.5%.

Tech View: Negative candle on the daily chart
“A small negative candle was formed on the daily chart with an upper shadow. Technically, this pattern indicates a breather-type formation post sharp upside bounce from the lower supports of 16800 levels recently. The market is currently facing resistance around 17450-17500 levels per the concept of change in polarity,” added Shetti.

Stocks showing bullish bias
Momentum indicator Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) showed a bullish trade setup on the counters of Zomato, IDFC First Bank, HCC, SAIL and Indiabulls Housing.

The MACD is known for signalling trend reversals in traded securities or indices. When the MACD crosses above the signal line, it gives a bullish signal, indicating that the price of the security may see an upward movement and vice versa.

Stocks signalling weakness ahead
The MACD showed bearish signs on the counters of HUL, JM Financial, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Arvind Fashions and Cyber Media.

A bearish crossover on the MACD on these counters indicated that they have just begun their downward journey.

Most active stocks in value terms
Zee Entertainment (Rs 70.79 crore), Bajaj Finance (Rs 63 crore), TCS (Rs 58 crore), Adani Enterprises (Rs 55 crore) and Infosys (Rs 53 crore) were among the most active stocks on NSE in value terms. Higher activity on a counter in value terms can help identify the counters with the highest trading turnovers in the day.

Most active stocks in volume terms
Suzlon Energy (Shares traded: 3.9 crore), Vodafone Idea (Shares traded: 3.4 crore), JP Power (Shares traded: 1.86 crore) and Yes Bank (Shares traded: 1.67 crore) were among the most traded stocks in the session on NSE.

Stocks showing buying interest
Shares of Garden Reach Shipbuilders, PC Jeweller, Go Fashion, Cochin Shipyard and IDFC First Bank among others witnessed strong buying interest from market participants as they scaled their fresh 52-week highs, signalling bullish sentiment.

Stocks seeing selling pressure
No stock witnessed strong selling pressure and hit their 52-week lows, signalling bearish sentiment on the counters.

Sentiment meter favours bulls
Overall, market breadth favoured winners as 2,299 stocks ended in the green, while 1,159 names settled with cuts..

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)