Mr. Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities
Nifty closed lower for the third consecutive session on Feb 18 amidst uncertainties on the way ahead for the Ukraine Russia conflict. Nifty opened lower but soon began to rise forming higher bottom, higher tops till it made an intra day high at 1250 Hrs. It later sold off and closed almost near the intra day low. At close, Nifty was down 0.16% or 28.3 points at 17276.3.
On a day when the volumes on the NSE were the lowest since April 2020, Capital Gains and Bank indices gained the most while Realty and Oil & Gas indices fell the most. BSE Smallcap and Midcap indices fell 0.80%.
Global stocks vacillated between losses and gains on Friday as planned talks between Russia and the U.S. over Ukraine alleviated some investor gloom about geopolitical risks. Meituan tumbled the most in nearly seven months after China issued new guidelines asking for food delivery platforms to cut fees. The move caused a broad selloff in technology shares, with the Hang Seng Tech Index closing 3.2% lower while the benchmark Hang Seng Index dropped 1.9%.
Nifty closed down for the third consecutive session while closing down for the second consecutive week, down 0.57% for the week. Advance decline ratio remains deep in the negative, suggesting limited interest in broader markets. A 22 month low volumes also suggest that traders are unsure about the direction of the markets amidst number of triggers. While limited fall over three days post a sharp recovery on Feb 15 suggests relative strength in the frontline indices, volumes may have to rise to generate more confidence for long traders. 17396-17119 could be the band for the Nifty over the near term.