NIFTY opened the day at 17,102, with a gap-up of 7 points. The index did not give a clear trend indication till 1:30 PM. It moved up and down around the 17,000 level. Nifty fell significantly after 2 PM and closed the day at 16,887, down by 207 points or 1.21%. 

BANK NIFTY started the day at 38,444 with a gap-down of 187 pts. The index moved down slowly with multiple consolidations in between. It broke 38,000 towards the end but took support from 37,963. Bank Nifty closed at 38,029 down by 602 points or 1.56%.

All the indices except for Nifty Pharma (+1.1%) ended in the red. Nifty Bank (-1.5%), Nifty Auto (-2%, Nifty FMCG (-2%), Nifty Metal (-3%) and Nifty PSU Bank (-2.6%) fell the  most.

Major Asian Markets except for Japan (+1%) closed in the red. European Markets are now trading 1% down.

Today’s Moves

Oil-exploration company ONGC (+4.4%) closed as Nifty 50 Top Gainer after the government increased prices for domestically produced natural gas. Shares of OIL (+3.3%) also gained.

For the same reason, city gas distribution companies-IGL (-2.7%) and MGL (-3.6%) moved down.

Adani Ent (-8.4%) saw heavy selling and closed as Nifty 50 Top Loser, after entering the Nifty 50 category today.

Other Adani stocks - Adani Ports (-4.2%), Adani Green (-8.2%), AWL (-5%-LC), Adani Power (-5%)-LC), Adani Trans (-5%) and ATGL (-7.1%) also fell heavily.

Auto companies- Eicher Motors (-5.6%), Maruti (-3.1%), Ashok Leyland (-1.5%), M&M (-1.3%), TVS Motorts (-3.5%) and Tata Motors (-1.7%) after reporting September sales numbers. 

Cement related stocks - India Cements (-5.7%), Ambuja Cements (-5.2%), ACC (-4.7%), JK Cement (-2.9%), JK Lakshmi (-2.9%), and Grasim (-2.2%) closed with loss.

Pharma stocks again outperformed, powered by good brokerage reports and expectations of better sales in the U.S and India. Auro Pharma (+4.8%), Cipla (+1.4%), Dr Reddy (+1.9%), Glenmark (+3.1%), Lupin (+6.2%) and Zydus Life (+5.8%) gained today.

Nykaa (+2.5%) has approved the issue of bonus shares 5 shares for every 1 equity share held.

MCX (+2.3%) gained after extending the agreement for technical support with 63 Moons for another 3 months.

Hotel stocks - Ind Hotel (+1.5%), Chalet Hotels (+3.8%), EI Hotel (+4.6%), Lemon tree (+1%),  and Orient Hotels (+6.8%) moved up on festival season expectations.

Markets Ahead

Cloudy Market!

Nifty opened flat and Bank Nifty opened with a decent gap-down today. Tomorrow’s market is unclear to me. Reasons?

• The market is trying to move up more frequently but fails due to ‘sell on rise’ pressure.
• Nifty FMCG fell heavily on a weak day, which is unusual.
• Nifty IT witnessing highly volatile movements.
• Bank Nifty broke 38,000, but the average close is above it.
• HDFC Bank and HDFC tried to move up after 11 AM but did not see huge falls.

Major levels for the coming days are,

Nifty- 17,180, 17,120, 17,040, 17k, 16,980, 16,940 on the upper side. 16,820 and 16,740 as support.

Bank Nifty- 38,400, 38,700, 38,850 and 39k as resistance. On the downside, 37,830, 37,550 and 37,380 levels.

Fin Nifty-  17,400 as the major level on the upper side. 17,200, 17,110 will be watched as support.

India September S&P Global India PMI Manufacturing was reported at 55.1 vs 56.2 Previous.

Eurozone September Manufacturing PMI was posted at 48.4 against the estimate of 48.5.

Do you feel like high-level institutional activities are happening in the market as we enter the second half of this fiscal year? Share your thoughts in the comments section.