Taking Stock: Last-minute buying helps market recover; Sensex up 100 points, Nifty above 18,300

Indian benchmark indices recovered some of the previous session losses to end on a positive note in a highly volatile session on May 25, helped by gains in FMCG and auto stocks.

At close, the Sensex was up 98.84 points or 0.16% at 61,872.62, and the Nifty was up 35.80 points or 0.20% at 18,321.20.

Amid weak global cues, the market started on a negative note and extended the losses as the day progressed but buying in the final half-an-hour of trading in auto, FMCG and realty names helped indices make a smart comeback.

Stocks and Sectors

Bajaj Auto, Adani Enterprises, Bharti Airtel, ITC and Divis Laboratories were among the biggest gainers on the Nifty, while Wipro, Tata Motors, UPL, Sun Pharma and HDFC were among the big losers.

Except metal and PSU Bank, all sectoral indices ended in the green. The realty index was up a percent, while auto, capital goods, FMCG and power gained 0.5 percent each.

The BSE midcap index rose 0.36 percent and the smallcap index added 0.27 percent.

A long build-up was seen in Jubilant FoodWorks, Cummins India and Indus Towers, while a short build-up was seen in Tata Chemicals, India Cements and Ashok Leyland.

Among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 100 percent was seen in Indiabulls Housing Finance, Delta Corp and Oberoi Realty.

More than 100 stock touched their 52-week high on the BSE today, including Britannia Industries, Equitas Small Finance Bank, IDFC, Ceat, Delta Corp, Apollo Tyres, Godrej Consumer Products, Star Cement and Wonderla Holidays.

Outlook for May 26

Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities

On the last day of Monthly F&O series day, the benchmark indices witnessed a volatile trading session, the Nifty ended 36 points higher. Among Sectors, Reality and Digital indices gained nearly 1 percent whereas intraday profit booking was seen in PSU Banks and Pharma stocks.

Technically, after morning intraday selloff once again the Nifty took the support near 20-day SMA (Simple Moving Average) and bounced back sharply. It also formed a bullish candle on daily charts which supports further uptrend from the current levels.

We are of the view that, 20-day SMA or 18220 would be the sacrosanct support zone for the bulls. Above the same, the index could retest the level of 18400-18450. On the flip side, below 20-day SMA or 18220 uptrend would be vulnerable and below the same, the market could slip till 18150-18100.

Jatin Gedia, Technical Research Analyst, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas

The Nifty opened on a flat note and witnessed weak price action during the first half of the trading session. Buying interest emerged from the 20-day moving average (18224) and there was a sharp surge during the second half which helped the Nifty to close the day on a positive note up ~36 points.

On the daily charts we can observe that the Nifty is witnessing buying interest from crucial support levels and the dips are being bought into which is a bullish sign. The daily momentum indicator still has a negative crossover which indicates that the index can consolidate however slowly the structure is turning in favor of the Bulls.

The daily Bollinger bands are contracting which indicates contraction of range and also suggests that there could be rangebound price action over the next few trading sessions.

Overall, we still believe that the Nifty is in a consolidation mode and the range of consolidation is likely to be 18000 – 18400. In terms of levels, 18420 – 18450 shall act as the immediate hurdle while 18200 – 18180 is the crucial support zone to watch out for on the downside.

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