Benchmarks opened lower on Wednesday as heavyweights HDFC Bank Ltd. and ICICI Bank Ltd. dragged the benchmark index lower. The decline in Asian equity indices also put pressure on the indices.
At 09:17 am, the NSE Nifty 50 was 4.10 points or 0.02% higher at 24,702.95 and the BSE Sensex was unchanged at 80,801.08.
The Nifty 50 has risen near the gap level of 24,800 and a break above this level would extend the move close to an all-time high, said Vikas Jain, head of research at Reliance Securities.
Any corrective action to 24,400 support in the next few days would be a good opportunity to add longs. The RSI was overbought on the hourly charts and would see a corrective action to test the lower range of the averages. The highest call OI is at 25,000 strikes while the highest put OI has increased to the downside to 24,600 for the weekly expiry, Jain said.
HDFC Bank Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd., Reliance Industries Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. and Shriram Finance Ltd. weighed on the Nifty 50 index.
Bharti Airtel Ltd., Larsen & Toubro Ltd., ITC Ltd., Divi’s Laboratories Ltd. and Tata Motors Ltd. limited the losses in the index.
On the NSE, six out of 12 sectors rose, three declined and three remained unchanged. The NSE Nifty Realty led the losses and the NSE Nifty Pharma recorded the most gains.
The broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rose 0.15% and 0.40%, respectively.
On the BSE, 14 out of 20 sectors recorded gains and six recorded declines. The BSE industrial sector recorded the largest gain and the BSE real estate sector recorded the largest decline.
On the BSE, 2,046 shares rose, 847 shares fell and 141 shares remained unchanged.
