Markets Daily - Feb 18, 2021 - Mr. Devarsh Vakil, Deputy Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities

Indian benchmark equity indices ended in the negative territory for the third consecutive session on February 18. Profit booking set in the second half of the trading session - Nifty fell after making an intraday high of 15250 in the morning session. At close, the Nifty was down 90 points or 0.59% at 15118.

On the Nifty50 index, ONGC, GAIL, BPCL, NTPC, and IOC were the top gainers while Bajaj Finance, Tata Motors, M&M, Kotak Bank and Shree Cement led the losers.

Among sectors PSU Bank, IT gained the most, while Financial and Auto fell the most. Compared to benchmark indices, the broader indices like Midcap and Small cap index continued to rally and finished the day higher by 0.47% and 0.96% respectively.

Major Asian markets ended in red on Thursday as investors sold to lock in profits from the recent rally. Rising bond yields and a surge in crude prices weighed on sentiments. European markets are trading flat today following the sharp losses of yesterday.

Nifty closed well below its short-term averages for the first time since the union budget suggesting more weakness may follow. However, positive advance-decline ratio and buoyancy in the Midcap and small-cap Indices on suggest investors are rotating money away from larger stocks. 14977-15078 could be the next support band for Nifty. On rise, 15315 could act as short-term resistance.

Source : Equity Bulls

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