Indian stock markets take a long break from April 14-17 due to Ambedkar Jayanti, Good Friday and public holiday weekends. Commercial activity will resume on Monday (April 18) after remaining suspended for four consecutive days. The benchmark NSE Nifty 50 is expected to extend the ongoing consolidation with a positive bias in the 17,200-17,800 range over the coming week in specific stocks. “Buy dips as we don’t expect Nifty to break above strong support at 17200 levels,” analysts at ICICI Direct said. The specific performance of broader market equities should continue. Sector-wise, BFSI, metal themes should do well, as well as stock-specific performance of IT, capital goods, he added.
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Large cap: State Bank of India, Axis Bank, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Adani Ports, Reliance Industries (RIL), ITC, JSW Steel
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Clever: range related to probable positive movement
Shrewd consolidation could continue in the coming weeks amid the results of index heavyweights such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. A range related to positive movement is likely in the index over the coming sessions. From a sector perspective, the banking space could continue to outperform and provide support in a prolonged decline, analysts say.
“Looking ahead, we believe the current levels near 17400-17500 should be crucial for the index as it holds the primary selling base for weekly and monthly settlement. Index futures are relatively weak and the high basis prevailing in index futures is normalized again.Also, despite recent heavy selling among the heavyweights, the volatility index is still hovering below 18 and appears to be on the mend. ‘there should be limited downside from current levels,’ ICICI Direct said.
Bank Nifty: Further Highs Expected Only Above 38,000
The Bank Nifty traded in a tight narrow band near 500 points throughout the truncated week. This was more of a stock-specific action than a broad participation. PSU stocks continued to perform well while stocks like HDFC Bank breached their sell base of 1500 and closed below that level. Even though the Bank Nifty index managed to outperform for a few sessions, it failed to sustain the follow-up momentum and hold above the 38,000 levels.
“We think further upside would only be seen above the 38,000 levels now. Until then, there would be stock-specific action. We think the index remains a buy down at 37,000” ICICI Direct analysts believe outperformance will resume in the index once it closes above the 38,000 levels.
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