Nifty closes below 18,000; banks, IT, and FMCG drag the market

Market update at 3.30 PM: Wednesday’s trading session turned out to be yet another disappointing day for the bulls as Nifty plunged 0.96 per cent and closed below 18,000 while Sensex tanked 646 points. However, Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap closed flat, which means that it was a large-cap concentrated selling.   

The top losers included Shree Cement, Asian Paints, Grasim, Infosys & HUL while ONGC and Tata Motors supported the market.  

As the 18,000 level was breached, aggressive call writing was seen at 18,000, 18,100, and 18,200 call options. Moreover, put unwinding was done on the same strikes. This clearly shows the bearishness among the market participants.   

Market update at 12.50 PM: Nifty has breached its 18,000 crucial support level and has fallen drastically towards 17,900. It is currently down by 1.20 per cent while Sensex has tanked over 750 points.  

All the sectoral indices are in deep red except Nifty Media, which is up by half a per cent. India VIX has shot up by over 3 per cent.  

The top stocks dragging the market are Adani Ports, Bajaj Finance, and Asian Paints.  

Meanwhile, ONGC, Bajaj Auto, and Tata Motors are holding onto their gains.  

Now it remains to be seen whether Nifty falls further or we would witness some recovery from hereon.  

Market update at 10.15 AM: The market is under selling pressure right from the opening bell. Nifty breached the key level of 18,000 & hit a low of 17,950 but soon recovered and is currently trading marginally above 18,000. Meanwhile, Sensex has lost over 300 points. 

Sectors that are dragging the market include IT, pharma, FMCG, and realty, whereas media, auto, metal, and PSU banks are supporting the market.  

Bajaj Finance emerges in the top gainers’ list and has surged nearly 3 per cent before receding a little. Meanwhile, Infosys, HCL Tech, and Wipro are three of the top five losers among Nifty stocks. 

The market participants shall keenly watch the 18,000 level for a further trend in the market. 

Pre-market update: Last night, the US markets fell drastically as Dow Jones plunged about 550 points while NASDAQ slipped around 2.60 per cent. The global cues are not really good as the fear of interest hikes persists. Along with this, the US 10-year bond yield shot up to 1.86 per cent. Moreover, Crude oil has hit 7-year highs as supply tightens, which is likely to put more inflation pressure on major importing countries like India. 

Thus, the Asian markets have opened flat to negative with SGX Nifty indicating about 10-point lower opening. 

On the last trading day, the FIIs as well as DIIs were net sellers for second consecutive day and sold for about Rs 1,254 crore & Rs 220 crore, respectively. 

Bajaj Finance came out with fantastic results post market hours on Tuesday, which were in line with the expectations. The net profit jumped 84 per cent on YoY basis while AUM increased 21 per cent. Thus, the stock will be in focus today. 

Bajaj Auto, Larsen & Toubro Infotech, Syngene International are some of the companies that are set to declare their results today. 

The 18,000 will act as a major support zone for Nifty and would be keenly watched today.