Nifty snaps 5-day winning streak on Friday

26 Apr 2024 Evaluate

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Friday’s trading session in negative terrain with half a percent cut, amid heavy selling in Financial stocks. After making a positive start, soon index slipped into red, as traders were cautious with provisional data from the NSE showing that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold Rs 2,823.33 crore shares on April 25, 2024. Traders overlooked report by Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) stating that India's engineering goods including steel and machinery exports rose 10.7% year-on-year in March to $11.28 billion, growing in double digits for the second straight month, despite ongoing supply issues caused by disruption to shipping through the Red Sea.

In afternoon session, index continued to trade below its neutral line and remained lower till the end, as sentiments were downbeat with the World Bank stating that interest rates could remain higher than expected in 2024 and 2025 as global commodity prices level off. Traders were cautious amid reports that India's central bank plans to soon change guidelines to permit banks to temporarily freeze accounts suspected of being used to commit cyber-crimes, as it battles a rising wave of online crime. In last leg of trade, index extended its losses to end with losses of 150.40 points, as traders were worried with rating agency Crisil stating that prices of vegetables, a key component of food inflation, may be elevated for the next few months due to ‘above-normal’ temperatures till June as predicted by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The rates are likely to decline after the onset of monsoon in June. 

Traders were seen piling up positions in Consumer Durables, Media and Pharma, while selling was witnessed in Financial Services, Bank and Private Bank. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Tech Mahindra, GMR Airports Infrastructure and Coromandel International. On the other hand, the top losers Bajaj Finance, L&T Technology Services and Bajaj Finserv. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 22900 - 23100 calls and 21900 - 22100 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

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