Today’s Market Summarised
Fake positivity but did anyone fall for it? Markets moving down consistently throughout the day with only Nifty Pharma trading somewhat sideways.
After opening the day with a 170-points gap-up, Nifty consistently kept falling through the day. This was helped initially by the fall in HDFC and Infy. But later, banks also joined in on the fun to pull the index even lower. After trading between 14,350 and 14,400 for 2 hours, a sharp sell-off across the market took the index down to 14,200 levels.
Nifty remained volatile to close the day at 14,296, down 63 points or 0.44%.
Bank Nifty’s case was different. After opening with a 350 point gap-up at 31,589, Bank Nifty tried to move up even more with HDFC Bank remaining strong. But this was not enough, as the index started coming under selling pressure soon. 31,400 was respected for the first time, but was taken out. The index fell below 31,000 but managed to climb back.
Bank Nifty closed the day at 31,112, down 95 points or 0.31%.
Nifty Media(up 3%) gained the most today, followed by Nifty Pharma(up 1.29%) and Nifty Auto(up 1.03%). Only Nifty IT closed more than 1% down. All other indices consolidated.
Asian markets closed mostly in the red today, with Japan down 2%. European markets trading in the red.
News Picks
After yesterday’s announcement of vaccine for everyone above 18,
PM Narendra Modi is likely to hold a meeting with top vaccine manufacturers today at 6 pm. We can look out for important announcements after this.
India’s Covid test positivity rate fell for the first time in the last 11 days. One week lockdown has been imposed in Jharkhand from April 22.
Cadila Healthcare said it expects approval for its Covid-19 vaccine by June and may double production to 24 crore annual doses. The stock closed up by more than 5%.
Inox Air said oxygen requirement increased 7 times and has met 70% of the demand. Inox Wind closed up by 6 %. The stock was up by more than 17% at one point in time.
FADA Maharashtra expects April auto sales to be 70% lower than the average as the first 15 days were slow. Auto stocks saw some profit booking around this time but regained back.
ICICI Bank board to meet on April 24 to consider fundraising by way of issuance of bonds. The stock was nearly 2% up in the beginning but closed in the red.
Shares of Bajaj Finserv and Bajaj Finance closed as top-gainers today. The companies along with many other private players are the ones raising cash to safeguard against the next Covid-19 wave.
Dr Reddy gained to close nearly 3.80% up in the day, after the government’s vaccination for all announcement. The pharma major is manufacturing Russia’s Sputnik-V and is currently exploring pricing options.
Cement stocks came under profit booking even with ACC reported good quarterly profit numbers yesterday. UltraCemco closed nearly 5% down in the day, followed by ACC at 2.71% down.
Shares of PVR and Inox gained 6% and 4% respectively after yesterday’s fall. Investors bet on vaccination hopes and fund-raising by the companies. The stocks are still considerably down this year, with PVR down more than 20% from Jan 1.
Markets Ahead
Markets saw heavy profit booking after the gap-up opening. It was clearly a false positivity in the beginning as just announcing a vaccination for all actually changed nothing for the markets.
ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank tried to hold up in the beginning but with their fall everything was back to yesterday’s level. Usually, we see Wednesday falls in the market. But today the market saw profit booking after 2 pm as tomorrow is a holiday.
Nifty continues to look weak, and if Bank Nifty cannot close above 32,500 this weakness will continue. The 14,200 support has now been tested multiple times, and we may see this level breaking soon.
If you remember, we had talked about getting into AstraZeneca and Pfizer positions nearly a week ago. If you did, then more than 12-15% of profits would have been yours in a bearish market. Dr Reddy, Pfizer and AstraZeneca have helped keep my portfolio in green. Will be looking for more opportunities once the market settles down.
Open some charts and find some levels tomorrow. Enjoy the market holiday of Ram Navami, and try to use some time for studying.
Catch you all on The Stock Market Show tonight!
