Nifty ends marginally lower amid volatility; ITC becomes top loser

 Market update at 4 pm: Indices end marginally lower i.e. about 0.25 per cent. Nifty witnessed huge volatility in the range of 17,200-17.400.   

Among the sectoral indices, Nifty Media emerged as the top gainer while Nifty PSU Bank was badly hit. ITC, which had the investors’ meet today, emerged as the top loser of the day. Besides, India VIX ended about 3 per cent higher.                 

Huge volatility was witnessed today as reflected on India VIX, which went up by over 2 per cent. Nifty remained in the tight range of 17,200-17,400 and a breakout at either end will decide the trend of Nifty for the upcoming days.

Market update at 1.15 pm: After witnessing selling pressure early in the morning, Nifty took support around 17,200 and bounced back. Currently, it is trading above 17,300. 

Sectors that supported the market include IT, pharma and media indices while auto index is dragging it. The advance-decline ratio has improved to 904:927.  

Nifty and Sensex are marginally down, and it would be interesting to see where Nifty closes for further clues.

Market update at 11 am: Nifty tumbled 0.8 per cent while Sensex lost over 500 points. Nifty tried to fill the gap in the early few minutes of the session but was dragged down by the heavyweight stocks. 

The auto, realty, and banking stocks felt the heat while the pharma sector is going strong. The advancing stocks are 701 whereas, the declining stocks are 1,107.  

Anand Rathi Wealth debuts at a 9 per cent premium while the stock in focus, which was ITC, plunged over 2 per cent. 

The level of 17,200 continues to be the key support for Nifty but let's see what happens in the latter half of the session. 

Pre-market update: On Monday, Dow and NASDAQ plunged almost a per cent each. The European markets ended in red too. Owing to the negative global trends, the Asian markets started lower on Tuesday morning with SGX Nifty indicating a gap-down of about 150 points.  

On Monday, the FIIs were the net sellers again, selling equity worth Rs 2,743 crore. The DIIs, on the other hand, bought equity worth Rs 1,351 crore.   

The primary focus will be on ITC as its investors’ meet is scheduled for the day; so, one can expect big action in the stock. Meanwhile, Anand Rathi Wealth IPO is about to list today on the exchange, with decent listing gain expected.  

Now that 17,400-level has been broken by Nifty, the next key level to watch for would be 17,200. Breaching this level would mean a downfall to 17,000 once again. On the higher side, 17,400 and 17,500 will act as resistance.   

For the initial one hour of the trade, it would be important to see how Nifty reacts to the gap-down.