Is the worst market fall behind us?

Welcome to ETMarkets Watch, the show about stocks, market trends and money-making ideas. I am Saloni Goel and here are the top headlines at this hour.

- Formal job creation surged in December 2021
- Ukraine war could hit home prices in India
- Centre asks states to ease Covid curbs
- Crisil upgrades Vedanta's credit rating to stable
and
- ESIC scheme adds 15.26 lakh new members in Dec

Now, let us take a quick glance at what happened on Dalal Street today.

After a seven-day hiatus, bulls returned to equity markets on Friday tracking positive cues from global markets and as investors took advantage of lower valuations following massive sell-off in the previous session. Investors added Rs 7.83 lakh crore to their kitty today amid broad-based buying.

The BSE barometer Sensex scaled 56,000 levels during the session. It finally settled above 55,850 on rallying more than 1,300 points. Its broader peer, Nifty50, soared more than 400 points and settled above 16,650 levels.

Broader markets outperformed headline peers as both BSE midcap and smallcap indices rallied more than 4 per cent each. Fear gauge India VIX dropped more than 16 per cent and slipped below 27-levels at close.

Only two stocks from the Sensex pack settled in the red, namely HUL and Nestle. Tata Steel's 7 per cent rally put it at the top among gainers. It was followed by IndusInd Bank that added 6 per cent. Bajaj Finance, NTPC, Tech Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Axis Bank were among other top gainers, adding 4 per cent each. TCS, Bajaj Finserv, Wipro, Power Grid, ICICI Bank, HCL Tech, ITC, Airtel, HDFC, Titan and HDFC Bank gained 3 per cent each.

As many as 32 stocks hit upper circuit during the session, but only four stocks tested their lower circuit limits. Meanwhile, 14 stocks tested their 52-week highs during the session, whereas more than two dozen stocks tested their 52-week lows.

We have Arijit Malakar from Ashika Stock Broking to share his views on the action and the road ahead. Welcome to the show sir:
1. Domestic markets staged a quick recovery today. Do you think that the worst is behind us?
2. What is your take on FIIs flows? Do you see them coming back anytime soon?

We also caught up with Nilesh Jain of Centrum Broking to decode the technical charts for you.
1. Nifty50 managed to settle above 16,650. What are the next key levels for it?
2. Nifty Bank outperformed during the session. What is your take on it?

Asian markets settled with decent gains for the day. Major European markets were trading higher in the first few hours of trade. That said, US stock futures were down, hinting towards a negative start to US equities later in the day.

That’s all for now. Do check out ETMarkets.com for all the news, market analysis, investment strategies and dozens of stock recommendations. Enjoy your evening. Bye Bye!