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

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty extended their rally for the third straight session on Wednesday amid buying in index majors IndusInd Bank, Nestle India, and HCL Tech. However, continuous foreign fund outflows and a weak trend in global equities restricted gains in the market, traders said.
The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 169.87 points to settle at 60,300.58. During the day, it jumped 232.08 points to 60,362.79.

The broader NSE Nifty advanced 44.35 points or 0.25 per cent to end at 17,813.60.

Here's how analysts read the market pulse:
“The domestic bourses mirrored the mood on Wall Street as soft economic data and underwhelming earnings dragged US equities to a weak close yesterday. However, the market gradually recovered after an uptick in US futures, with the earnings of tech companies providing support. Adding to investors' concerns about a possible recession, the US consumer confidence data for April hit a nine-month low ahead of the upcoming Fed policy meeting,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said.

“The Nifty Bulls managed to hold the support of 17,700 after the gap-down opening, and the index recovered fully at the end of the session. The momentum remains strong, and one should keep a buy approach and expect targets of 18,000/18,200 in the near term. The monthly expiry indicates resistance at 18,000 where the highest open interest is built up on the call side,” Kunal Shah, Senior Technical & Derivative Analyst at LKP Securities, said.

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

Wall Street Watch
Wall Street stocks opened higher on Wednesday, lifted by strong earnings from Microsoft and other large companies, although shares of First Republic Bank tumbled again.

Dow component Microsoft jumped about seven percent after reporting a profit of $18.3 billion, in results that were boosted by cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1 percent at 33,574.15. The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.2 percent at 4,079.12, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.8 percent to 11,898.70.

European Shares
European shares fell on Wednesday and were set for their biggest one-day drop in a month, as banking sector worries overshadowed initial euphoria from solid earnings by tech giants Microsoft and Alphabet. The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.7%, as regional banking stocks dropped 1.2%.

Tech View: Positive candle
A reasonable positive candle was formed on the daily chart with a long lower shadow. Technically, this pattern indicates an uptrend continuation with range-bound action. The Doji pattern of Tuesday has been surpassed on the higher side marginally.

Stocks showing bullish bias
Momentum indicator Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) showed bullish trade on the counters of Power Finance Corporation, Gujarat State Petronet, KPIT Technologies and Ambuja Cements, among others.

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 signaling weakness ahead
The MACD showed bearish signs on the counters of Anant Raj, Maruti Suzuki, Muthoot Finance, Macrotech Developers, and Aster DM Healthcare among others.

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

Most active stocks in value terms
RVNL (Rs 4252 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 2769 crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 2282 crore), Axis Bank (Rs 1718 crore), and SBI (Rs 1302 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
RVNL (Shares traded: 39.58 crore), Vodafone Idea (Shares traded: 16.91 crore), Suzlon Energy (Shares traded: 14.04 crore), Yes Bank (Shares traded: 12.88 crore) and IRFC (Shares traded: 12.48 crore) among the most traded stocks in the session on NSE.

Stocks showing buying interest
Shares of Triveni Turbine, KEI Industries, Safari Industries and Siemens, among others, witnessed strong buying interest from market participants as they scaled their fresh 52-week highs, signalling bullish sentiment.

Stocks seeing selling pressure
Shares of Aavas Financiers, Nykaa, Max Financial, PVR and IPCA Labs, among others, hit their 52-week lows, signalling bearish sentiment on the counters.

Sentiment meter favours bulls
Overall, market breadth favoured bulls as 1,583 stocks ended in the red, while 1,904 names settled with gains.

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