Ahead of Market: 10 things that will decide stock market action on Friday

The Indian stock market extended losses on Thursday, with Sensex and Nifty wiping off all morning gains to close in the red as elevated oil prices, bond yields and other factors continued to weigh on investor sentiment.

Sensex saw a sharper decline following the closing auction session (CAS) on its weekly expiry day, tumbling 417 points or nearly 0.6% to close at 76,153. Nifty 50 meanwhile fell 41 points or 0.17% to end the session at 23,873 on Thursday.

Here's how analysts read the market pulse


"The market's recovery attempt lost steam as supportive global cues and renewed FII inflows collided with lingering geopolitical tensions & elevated global yields. Banking and realty stocks provided leadership, while small-caps attracted investor interest, reflecting confidence in domestic growth prospects. Stubbornly high crude oil prices continue to act as key overhangs for the domestic market,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Investments.

While India's strong growth momentum and recent sovereign rating upgrade remain powerful structural positives, near-term market direction will largely depend on the evolution of global macro and geopolitical risks, Nair added.

US stocks

Wall Street stocks rose early Thursday, while US Treasury bond yields retreated as a government report showed America's trade deficit widened in July.
After reaching their highest level in nearly 20 years amid worries about inflation and the US budget deficit, yields on long-term bonds have pulled back somewhat.

Volatility in bonds and foreign currency is "in some ways quite astounding," said Interactive Brokers' Steve Sosnick.

European markets

In Europe, the STOXX 600 rose 0.2%, breaking three days of losses. A recovery in global bonds helped improve sentiment in equities, while the yen powered towards its biggest two-day rally since a boost from official intervention early last month. Oil reversed earlier losses to rise above $95 a barrel, as uncertainty prevailed over renewed military strikes between the U.S. and Iran.

Tech view

The Nifty started on a gap-up note but faced resistance near the lower band of the rising channel, triggering selling pressure throughout the day, said Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities. He noted that on the daily timeframe, a Dark Cloud Cover candlestick pattern has formed, indicating potential weakness in the near term.

On the lower end, support is placed at 23,850, below which the index may decline towards 23,700–23,730, the analyst said. Meanwhile on the higher end, he sees the index finding resistance at 24,000. “A sustained move above 24,000 would be required to negate the immediate bearish bias, according to De.

Most active stocks in terms of turnover

BSE (Rs 1,972 crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 1,967 crore), IFCI (Rs 1,637 crore), Swiggy (Rs 1,516 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 1,504 crore), Anant Raj (Rs 1,397 crore), and Reliance Industries (Rs 1,272 crore) were among the most active stocks on NSE in value terms. Higher activity in a counter in value terms can help identify the counters with the highest trading turnovers in the day.

Most active stocks in volume terms

Vodafone Idea (Traded shares: 26.12 crore), IFCI (Traded shares: 16.64 crore), Ola Electric (Traded shares: 6.67 crore), Yes Bank (Traded shares: 5.74 crore), Swiggy (Traded shares: 5.63 crore), Bank of Maharashtra (Traded shares: 4.86 crore) and IDFC First Bank (Traded shares: 4.82 crore) were among the most actively traded stocks in volume terms on NSE.

Stocks showing buying interest

Brigade Enterprises, Jyoti CNC Automation, Finolex Cables, Anant Raj, Capri Global, Apar Industries and Balrampur Chini were among the stocks that witnessed strong buying interest from market participants.

52-week high

Among the ones which hit their 52-week highs on NSE included Capri Global, PTC Industries, RBL Bank, Welspun Corp, Caplin Point, Solar Industries and Anthem Biosciences.

Stocks seeing selling pressure

Stocks which witnessed significant selling pressure were Deepak Fertilisers, Ola Electric Mobility, Gravita India, Pine Labs, MCX India, Gabriel India and Ather Energy.

52-week low

Among the ones which hit their 52-week lows on NSE included Godrej Consumer, ICICI Lombard, HUL, Bikaji Foods, KEC International, Mahindra CIE and Aditya Birla Retail.

Sentiment meter favours bulls

Out of the 3,628 stocks that traded on the NSE on September 3, Thursday, 2,208 stocks witnessed advances, 1,313 saw declines while 107 stocks remained unchanged.

(With inputs from agencies)

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)