Domestic equity benchmarks ended marginally higher after four sessions of losses, supported by gains in metal, energy and consumer stocks. Analysts cautioned that bearish technical indicators and resistance near key levels could keep markets volatile, while broader sentiment remained tilted toward selective selling pressure.

Ahead of Market: 10 things that will decide stock market action on Thursday

Domestic equity benchmarks snapped their four-day losing run and ended marginally higher on Wednesday, supported by strong buying in metal, energy and consumer shares. However, weakness in auto and IT counters restricted the overall gains. The Nifty edged up 33.05 points, or 0.14%, to settle at 23,412.60, while the BSE Sensex rose 49.74 points, or 0.07%, to close at 74,608.98.

Meanwhile, the volatility gauge India VIX ended at 19.43, down by 3.92% from the last closing.

Here's how analysts read the market pulse:

Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities said the index remained volatile throughout the session as investors stayed uncertain about the market’s near-term direction. Nifty traded below the 20 EMA on the hourly chart throughout the day, indicating persistent selling pressure, he said.

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"The daily RSI continues to remain in a bearish crossover, suggesting that the negative momentum is still intact. On the upside, the 23,500 zone continues to act as a strong resistance level. In the near term, the index may remain under pressure, while immediate support is placed around 23,150–23,200," he said.

US markets

Frontline indices on Wall Street traded lackluster on Wednesday as inflation fears and tenuous Iran-US tensions continued to weigh on the markets. While the Dow 30 traded at 49,487.29 around 9:45 a.m. EDT (7:15 pm India time), down by 273.27 points or 0.48%, the S&P 500 was 0.18% (13.49 points) lower at 7,387.47. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down by 60.62 points or 0.23% to hover around 26,027.59 around this time.

European Markets

Most major European indices traded mixed on Wednesday. UK’s FTSE 100 was trading mildly up at 0.04% at 1:21 p.m. BST (6:08 India time) while Germany's Dax and Stoxx 600 were 0.64% and 0.24% higher. Meanwhile, French CAC and Spain's IBEX 35 fell 0.36% and 0.22%, respectively.

Tech View

Decoding the charts, Bajaj Broking said Nifty formed a high wave candlestick pattern with a lower high and a lower low signaling consolidation after the last three sessions' sharp decline.

"The Nifty index needs to start forming higher highs and higher lows on a sustained basis in the daily chart and move above the recent breakdown area of 23,800 to signal a pause in the recent corrective trend. Nifty has immediate support at 23,000-23,200 levels being the confluence of the lower band of the 8th April gap area and the 61.8% retracement of the previous pullback (22,182-24,601), the brokerage said.

Most active stocks in terms of turnover

Dixon Technologies (Rs 307 crore), Larsen & Toubro (L&T, Rs 307 crore), MTAR Technologies (Rs 219 crore), IIFL Finance (Rs 207 crore), Reliance Industries (RIL, Rs 166 crore), State Bank of India (SBI, Rs 142 crore) and Vodafone Idea (Rs 121 crore) were among the most active stocks on BSE in value terms. Higher activity in a counter in value terms can help identify the counters with highest trading turnovers in the day.

Most active stocks in volume terms

Vodafone Idea (Traded shares: 9.58 crore), SpiceJet (Traded shares: 94.42 lakh), JP Power (Traded shares: 63.24 lakh), Suzlon Energy (Traded shares: 57.29 lakh), YES Bank (Traded shares: 56.94 lakh), Billionbrains Garage Ventures (Groww, Traded shares: 55.48 lakh) and SAIL (Traded shares: 53.99 lakh) were among the most actively traded stocks in volume terms on BSE.

Stocks showing buying interest

Hindustan Zinc, Groww, Vodafone Idea, Dixon Technologies, Berger Paints, Texmaco Rail & Engineering, Jaro Institute of Technology Management and Research and Smartlink Holdings were among the stocks that witnessed strong buying interest from market participants.

52-week high

Today, 90 stocks hit their 52 week highs while 56 stocks slipped to their 52-week lows. Among the ones which hit their 52 week highs included Acutaas Chemicals, Ajanta Pharma, Clean Max Enviro Energy Solutions, Disha Resources, HFCL, Hindalco Industries and Vodafone Idea.

Stocks seeing selling pressure

Among the large cap names were Eicher Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and Infosys. Other stocks which witnessed significant selling pressure were Tata Power, MTAR Technologies, Pine Labs, NIIT Learning Systems, Fractal Analytics, Torrent Power and Shree Vasu Logistics.

Sentiment meter favours bears

Sensex settled lower dragged by Bharti Airtel, L&T and Tata Steel as the market breadth stood negative. Out of the 4,369 stocks that traded on the BSE on May 13, Wednesday, 2,337 stocks witnessed advances, 1,871 saw declines while 161 stocks remained unchanged.

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

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