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

Tracking weak global cues, the domestic equity market remained under pressure and ended lower for the second day as market participants were worried over a possible global recession due to likely rate hikes going ahead.

Here's how analysts read the market pulse:

Ruchit Jain, Lead Research, 5paisa.com, said amongst sectoral indices, the pharma index seems to be well poised to play its defensive role and hence stocks within the pharma sector could see a decent upmove.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities, said 17,500 would be the key support level for Nifty, while 17,700 could act as a major hurdle for bulls. “Post 17,700 breakout the index could move up to 17,800-17,850. On the flip side, dismissal of 17,500 could increase the selling pressure. Below 17,500, we could expect short term weakness till 17,400-17,300.”

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

US stocks climb
Wall Street stocks rose on Wednesday, shaking off recent weakness as markets grappled with the likelihood of additional Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.

Analysts warned of more volatility ahead as the Wall Street Journal reported that the Fed appeared likely to enact another 75 basis point interest rate increase.

Near 1445 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5 percent at 31,300.48. The broad-based S&P 500 also gained 0.5 percent to 3,926.94, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.4 percent to 11,592.61.

European shares end mixed
European markets closed lower Wednesday as investors continued to dwell on the recessionary outlook in the region. Britain's FTSE 100 fell as energy and mining stocks weighed following weak Chinese data, while a jump in utilities shares helped lift Germany's DAX and France's CAC.

At the close, the broad STOXX 600 was down 0.4%, recovering from an earlier drop of more than 1%. Germany's DAX ended up 0.4%, while the FTSE lost 0.9%.

Tech View: Small bullish candle
Nifty50 formed a small bullish candle on the daily chart. Analysts said the consolidation in the index is intact, and the trend may continue going ahead. The 17,500 level may offer immediate support to the index, analysts said, adding that the upside will be capped in the 17,700-800 range.

Stocks showing bullish bias
Momentum indicator Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) showed a bullish trade setup on the counters of Wockhardt, Shree Cements, JK Lakshmi Cement, Firstsource and CESC.

The MACD is known for signaling 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 Aegis Logistics, Chambal Fertilisers, Hikal, Magma Fincorp and Eris Lifesciences. A bearish crossover on the MACD on these counters indicated that they had just begun their downward journey.

Most active stocks in value terms
Bharti Airtel (Rs 8,855 crore), Tata Motors (Rs 931 crore), RIL (Rs 892 crore), Adani Ports (Rs 774 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 773 crore), and Axis Bank (Rs 763 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
Bharti Airtel (Shares traded: 12.7 crore), Tata Steel (Shares traded: 4.4 crore), Tata Motors (Shares traded: 2.1 crore), NTPC (Shares traded: 1.9 crore), Coal India (Shares traded: 1.3 crore) and ONGC (Shares traded: 1.2 crore) were among the most traded stocks in the session on NSE.

Stocks showing buying interest
Shares of EIH, Concor, Aditya Birla Retail, Grindwell Norton, KEI Industries, Tube Investments and Ambuja Cements witnessed strong buying interest from market participants as they scaled their fresh 52-week highs, signalling bullish sentiment.

Stocks seeing selling pressure
Shares of Mastek, Alembic Pharma and Mphasis were among those that 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 2,064 stocks ended in the green, while 1,393 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)