Indian Market Ends Higher for Third Session Despite Last-Hour Selling

The Indian market squandered most of the day’s gains in last-hour selling on April 23 and closed with modest gains to end higher for a third session in a row.

At close, the Sensex was up 89.83 points, or 0.12 percent, at 73,738.45, and the Nifty was up 31.60 points, or 0.14 percent, at 22,368.

The market opened in the green on positive global cues as fears of an escalation in West Asia eased and volatility feel sharply. However, profit booking in the final hour erased most of the gains.

Grasim Industries, Bharti Airtel, Nestle India, Maruti Suzuki and HCL Technologies were among major Nifty gainers, while losers included Sun Pharma, BPCL, Reliance Industries, M&M and Hindalco Industries.

Among sectors, healthcare, metal, oil & gas and energy were down 0.3-0.8 percent, while FMCG, power, IT, realty and auto were up 0.4-2 percent.

The BSE midcap index rose 0.5 percent and the smallcap index gained a percent.

Among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 900 percent was seen in Balrampur Chini Mills, Bandhan Bank and Metropolis Healthcare.

A long build-up was seen in Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail, Aditya Birla Capital and Multi Commodity Exchange of India, while a short build-up was seen in Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, ABB India and Sun Pharma.

More than 250 stocks touched their 52-week high on the BSE, including Aditya Birla Capital, Amara Raja Batteries, Arvind, Bharti Airtel, Cochin Shipyard, Cummins India, Eicher Motors, Grasim Industries, Indraprastha Gas, LIC Housing Finance, Maruti Suzuki, Max Financial, MOIL, Sobha, Sterling Wilson, Sudarshan Chemicals, Tejas Networks, Voltas, among others.

Outlook for April 24

Aditya Gaggar Director of Progressive Shares

Range Bound trade comes to an end higher at 22,368 with gains of 31.60 points. Among the sectors, Realty gained over 2.6% and registered itself as a top gainer followed by FMCG and Media; and on the flip side, Pharma (0.90%) corrected the most.

During the day, Chemical and Railway counters regained their lost momentum by breaching their congestion zone. The interest of market participants was more towards Broader markets as Mid and Small Caps gained over 1% and outperformed the Frontline Index.

As mentioned yesterday, the Index found resistance at the bearish gap zone of 22,430-22,500. Our view remains the same i.e. need to fill the mentioned gap zone to extend its uptrend while a level of 22,190 (50 DMA) will continue to act as support.

Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst, LKP Securities

The Nifty remained sideways throughout the session as it failed to provide any directional breakout. However, the overall trend remains positive as the index closed above the critical moving average.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is showing a bullish crossover with a reading below 60.

On the higher end, the range of 22350-22400 is likely to act as a resistance zone; a decisive breakout above 22400 might trigger a rally in the market. On the lower end, support is positioned at 22250; a breach below this level might weaken the bullish sentiment.