Nifty closes below 17,700; IT, auto, and media drag

Nifty closes lower for the third straight day as it fell about 0.94 per cent on the day of the weekly expiry.

Market update at 3.30 PM: Nifty closes lower for the third straight day as it fell about 0.94 per cent on the day of the weekly expiry. Meanwhile, Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap also closed lower by 1.02 per cent & 0.31 per cent, respectively.  

Among the sectoral indices, Nifty Pharma closed marginally higher while the rest of the indices closed lower. Nifty IT and Nifty Media slipped over a per cent each. Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, and Cipla emerged as the top gainers while Titan Company, Adani Ports & HDFC were weak today. Despite the weakness, India VIX closed lower by 0.11 per cent.

Market Update at 11.40 AM: The Indian benchmark indices have recouped some of their losses and were seen trading off the day’s low. Nifty has reclaimed its 17,700 mark and was down by less than half a per cent. Interestingly, banking stocks have once again lent the much-needed support as ICICI Bank and Axis Bank have combinedly contributed nearly 22 points to Nifty.   

Talking about the sectoral performance, Nifty Realty and Nifty PSU Bank indices have jumped over 1 per cent each and were the top gainers, followed by Nifty Energy and Nifty Pharma. On the other hand, Nifty IT index saw profit booking and was the worst-performing index for the day.   

For Nifty, the level of 17,800 is likely to act as strong resistance as the highest open interest addition on the Call options side was seen on this strike for April 7 weekly expiry.

Market update at 9.30 AM: Indices have opened weak amid bad global cues. Nifty is currently trading near the 17,700-level and is down by 0.42 per cent. However, Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap are trading marginally higher.  

Among the sectors, realty and pharma are trading higher while IT, financials & auto are weak today. With this, India VIX has surged over 1.5 per cent.

Pre-market update: Last night, the US markets closed significantly lower, and NASDAQ tumbled about 2.22 per cent while Dow Jones lost around 145 points after the release of FOMC minutes, which stated aggressive plans to curb inflation.

With this, most of the Asian markets have opened lower, and SGX Nifty indicates a lower opening of about 50 points.

Crude oil hovers in the range of USD 100-105 per barrel and is expected to continue remaining in that range for some more time.

In the last trading session, the FIIs turned net sellers and sold for Rs 2,279 crore while the DIIs bought about Rs 622 crore worth of equity.

Nifty is likely to open below 17,800 and is expected to fill the gap that it had created on Monday.