TGIF: Thank God Indices Flat!
It was a highly volatile trading session. The markets started the day a little in the red and weakened briefly. Thereafter buying in select blue-chips kept the indices in green for major part of the day. The last hour and a half was extremely choppy with the main indices falling again only to recover in the end with a flat close. IT, telecom, auto and power stocks led the bounce back towards the end.
The Sensex closed at 18,774, up 54 points, while the Nifty rose marginally by 12 points to close at 5,667.
The gainers pack was led by IndusInd Bank, Hindalco, ONGC, Ranbaxy, NMDC, NTPC, Maruti, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Power Grid and Bharti Airtel while Jindal Steel, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Reliance Infrastructure, Sun Pharmaceutical, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Jaiprakash Associates and ACC lost out.
Given the volatilty in the market, Amar Ambani, Head of Research at IIFL, advises caution and asks investors to go light on positions. “We expect a short bounce back after such a sharp decline. But won’t advice buying at current levels. One can look to buy only if the Nifty manages to breach the 5,810 mark, which is also its 200 DMA.” In the coming week, the government would release its balance of payments data for the first quarter of the calendar year. Core sector data for May will also be closely tracked. Investors will do well to pick up some quality blue-chips which have been victims of the global sell-off.