After a negative opening, the index made an intraday low at 18,228.75 levels but it showed recovery from the bottom and managed to close the session above the 18300 mark. Bank Nifty closed the session at 38,216.15 level with a loss of 154.25 points.
At close, the Sensex was up 85.88 points or 0.14 percent at 61,308.91. The broader Nifty was up 52.30 points or 0.29 percent at 18,308.10. About 2101 shares have advanced, 1295 shares declined, and 113 shares are unchanged.
On the sectoral front, Nifty Auto, Energy, and Realty indices ended up by 2-1 percent each, while some selling is seen in the Pharma, IT, and Banking names
Among major gainers on the Nifty were Hero MotoCorp, Grasim Industries, ONGC, Tata Motors and UltraTech Cement. Major losers were HCL Technologies, HDFC Bank, Britannia Industries, Axis Bank and Cipla.
Palak Kothari, AVP-Research, Choice Broking, said, "On the technical front, the index has given breakout above the prior swing high and and formed a bullish candle on a daily time frame which suggests an upside rally in the counter. Furthermore, the index has been trading above Ichimoku cloud which adds strength for upside. Moreover, the index has been trading above 21&50-DMA with a positive crossover as well as a momentum indicator MACD & STOCHASTIC are trading with a positive crossover on the daily time-frame which suggests strength in the counter. At present, the Index has support at 18,200 levels while resistance comes at 18380 levels, crossing above the same can show 18,500-18,600 levels. On the other hand, Bank nifty has support at 37,800 levels while resistance at 39,000 levels."
Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities Ltd, said Traders flocked to real estate, automobile and power counters despite a lacklustre trading session as key indices managed to end in the green. With the Union Budget round the corner, the market is building up expectations with regards to key sectors where the FM can deliver. The Nifty has formed a small bullish candle and on intraday charts it is holding higher bottom series formation which is largely positive. For the trend following traders, 18,225 would be the key level to watch out for and above the same the uptrend formation may continue up to 18,375-18,400 levels. However, a quick intraday correction is not ruled out if the index trades below 18,225 and below the same it could hit 18,150-18,100."
Benchmark indices remained in green and maintained their trade above the neutral line, said Mohit Nigam, Head - PMS, Hem Securities. Nomura India Business Resumption Index (NBRI), a key tracker of the pace of normalization of economic activity in India, fell to 102.90, illustrating the impact of the surge in cases of COVID-19 driven by the Omicron variant of the virus.
Traders took note of a report that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a pre-budget stakeholder consultation with BJP leaders as well as professionals, business leaders, academicians and economists associated with the party which might impact the market positively. Shares of state-owned Oil India Ltd (OIL) rose over 5 percent on Monday, a day after the company exited from a US shale oil venture, the second exit of an Indian firm from the US shale business in two months.
On the technical front, the key resistance level for Nifty50 is 18,340 and on the downside 18,150 can act as strong support. Key resistance and support levels for Bank Nifty are 38,540 and 38,100 respectively.
Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities, said, "Nifty has risen after a day of pause and the advance decline ratio also remains healthy. However the day on day gain as well as the intra day range remains small. 18,164-18,342 seems to be the range for the Nifty in the near-term."
Prashant Tapse, Vice President (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd said, "Nifty’s ascent towards its all-time-high at 18,605 is still on the radar! The technical landscape is still aggressively bullish. This optimistic backdrop should take Nifty easily to its magical goalpost at 18605 mark and then aggressive inter-month targets at psychological 19,000-mark. There is likely to be lots of opportunities on the buy side as long as Nifty stays above 17,921 mark."
