Mr Vishal Wagh, Research Head
Nifty ends above 17,000, Sensex gains 384 pts on weekly expiry session led by short-covering among banking names. Except for Metal, all other sectoral indices ended in the green with PSU bank, realty, FMCG, oil & gas, power indices up 1-2 percent. BSE midcap index added 1 percent and the small-cap index rose 0.73 percent.
Nifty opened with a gap up but after a strong opening, it consolidated in the range of 17015 to 17115. The index is trading near the important retracement level and a quick correction is not ruled out if it trades below 17000. 17150-17250 is a resistance zone and we are shying away from those levels. Once we close above 17250, there will be renewed confidence in trading on the buy-side. Until then the bias continues to remain on the sell-side. The support for the Nifty is at 16800-16900 and if that breaks, we will retest the recent lows.
On the global front, US third-quarter GDP expanded at an annualized 2.3%, which is higher than expected. Reports on reduced risk of hospitalization and severity of Omicron as compared to the delta variant have supported the upward momentum along with favorable US economic data. Markets are taking comfort from their global counterparts, but it will be difficult to sustain with rising in omicron cases. Participants should continue with a cautious approach and maintain their focus on stock selection.
Power Grid Corporation, IOC, ONGC, ITC, and Cipla were among the top Nifty gainers. Losers were JSW Steel, Divis Labs, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, and UltraTech Cement.