Nifty closed at 18,400; Sensex tanked nearly 900 points amid strong sell-off, VIX surged over 6 per cent!

Despite the weakness, stocks like Britannia, Hero MotoCorp and SBI Life Insurance emerged as the top gainers

Market update at 3.30 PM: In a strongly volatile weekly expiry day, the benchmark indices witnessed a severe sell-off as NSE Nifty 50 index plunged 1.32 per cent to close at 18,400 levels while S&P BSE Sensex tanked nearly 900 points. Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap indices also ended on a weaker note.   

All the sectoral indices witnessed strong profit booking towards the end with IT, metals and media facing severe profit booking. The fear gauge India VIX surged over 6 per cent to close above 13-mark.  

Despite the weakness, stocks like Britannia, Hero MotoCorp and SBI Life Insurance emerged as the top gainers while Tech Mahindra, Titan Company and Infosys were the top losers.   

Nifty formed a strong bearish candle as a follow up to the Doji candle of the previous trading session, which is a bearish signal. The positive part here is that the prior swing low of 18,345 is still intact but aggressive bets should be avoided at this point in time.   

Market update at 2.10 PM: Indices have extended losses as strong profit booking pulls IT, media and metals. Amid weekly expiry day, NSE Nifty 50 index has slipped 0.85 per cent to trade at 18,500 levels while Sensex has tanked over 550 points.   

India VIX has surged over 4 per cent amidst such volatility

Market update at 11.15 AM: Indices have been trading lower amid volatility. NSE Nifty 50 index has slipped 0.44 per cent to trade below 18,600 while Sensex has lost over 300 points. Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap are relatively trading higher and are up 0.25 per cent each.   

PSU Banks and realty are the top performing sectors despite profit booking in broader market. Nifty IT has slipped over 1 per cent and is currently very weak.   

Stocks that have hit fresh 52-week high levels are Bank of India, Bharat Forge Limited, Federal Bank, IDFC First Bank, L&T Finance, Polycab and SBI.   

IRCTC has plunged over 5 per cent amidst strong sell-off by the investors post announcement of Government's stake sale via OFS.

The day’s low of 18,558 happens to be a major support level for Nifty and any fall below this level can trigger fresh short positions.  

Market update at 9.30 AM: The benchmark indices Nifty 50 and Sensex have been trading lower amid bad global cues. Nifty has plunged 0.27 per cent while Sensex has lost nearly 200 points. The midcap and Smallcap indices are relatively stronger.   

PSU Banks are the top performers among the sectors and have seen continued buying interest in top stocks. IT and metal indices have taken a hit and have slipped nearly 1 per cent. 

Pre-market update: The Wall Street indices plunged during Wednesday's trade as investors chose to exit risky assets post US Fed decision regarding the interest rate. The central bank decided to increase the interest rates by 50 basis points to a range of 4.25 per cent to 4.5 per cent which the highest in 15 years. The Fed signalled that the interest rate hikes are far from over and suggests more rate hikes in future to bring the hot inflation to its target level of 2 per cent. Tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged 3 quarters of a per cent while Dow Jones tanked 150 points. The Asian markets have opened on a similar note and trends on SGX Nifty indicate a loss of 60 points.

Crude oil prices have surged amidst postive demand outlook for 2023. Brent crude jumped over 2 per cent to trade above USD 82 per barrel levels.

IRCTC is likely to be in focus after government announced to sell up to 5 per cent stake via OFS. The floor office is set at Rs 680 levels.

In the last trading session, both the FIIs and DIIs were net buyers and bought to the tune of Rs 372 crore and Rs 926 crore respectively.

Nifty is expected to trade with voaltility given today's weekly expiry and stock specific action is likely to rule on the bourses.