Sensex, Nifty trim opening losses to trade flat; HDFC Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank top drag on D-Street

Among Nifty sectoral indices, Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty IT, and Nifty Pharma were trading with lossed while all other sectoral indices were seen surging.

Sensex and Nifty started Friday’s trading session in the negative territory, taking cues from global peers. S&P BSE Sensex opened down by 123 points or 0.32% at 37,903 points but soon trimmed losses to trade flat. On the other hand Nifty 50 slipped below the 11,200 mark on the opening bell but soon reclaimed the crucial level. Banking stocks saw some profit booking in the opening hour with both ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank trading down in the red. Analysts believe that positive sentiment might be carried on from yesterday’s trading session.

Top gainers: ONGC was the top gainer on Sensex up 1.5%, followed by Asian Paints and Maruti. Among midcaps Bayer Corp was up 11% while Torrent Power and Varroc followed. Rattan India Power and Anant Raj were the top gainers among small cap stocks, gaining 19% and 17%, respectively. 

Top losers: HCL Technologies and Infosys were the top drags on Sensex followed by HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. AU Small Finance Bank was the worst performing stock on BSE Midcap. Kellton Tech Solutions along with Deepak Nitrite were the top drags among smallcap stocks. 

Sectoral watch: Among Nifty sectoral indices, Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty IT, and Nifty Pharma were trading with lossed while all other sectoral indices were seen surging. Nifty Auto was up 1% with all its constituents, except Hero Motocorp and Amara Raja Batteries, trading with gains. 

Broaders markets outperform: After opening in the negative Sensex and Nifty did trim losses to trade flat but it was the broader midcap and smallcap indices that were outperforming them and by some margin. Nifty Midcap 50, Midcap 100, and Midcap 150 were trading with over 1% gains each.

Technical view: “We have opened below the levels of 11200 which indicates that the markets are still not fully convinced on the upside. We would need to get past and close above 11200 for the markets to enter a bullish zone. To be more specific, we should trade higher than yesterday’s closing which was 11256. On the downside, a close watch needs to be kept for 11100 – the breaking of this can derail the market direction and we could see some correction,” said Manish Hathiramani, Index Trader and Technical Analyst, Deen Dayal Investments