Markets showing volatility at the highs

Mumbai, Feb 5 : After showing intra-day decline from the highs of Friday, Nifty slipped into weakness amid volatility on Monday and closed the day lower by 82 points, said Nagaraj Shetti, Senior Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities.

At close, Nifty was down 82.

10 points or 0.38 per cent at 21,771.70, while Sensex was down 354.21 points or 0.49 per cent at 71,731.42.

After opening on a positive note, the market made an attempt to move up soon after the opening.The range-bound movement of mid-part finally broke down in the later part of the session as Nifty closed near the lows.

The selling pressure that started from the new all-time high of 22,126 has extended on Monday, and the market is now showing volatility at the highs, he said.

The present weakness is unlikely to damage the near-term uptrend status of the market and one may expect chances of upside bounce from the lower levels.

Immediate supports of be watched around 21,600-21,500 levels, Shetti said.

Vaibhav Vidwani, Research Analyst at Bonanza Portfolio, said Nifty Pharma and Nifty Oil & Gas were the sectors, which outperformed on Monday, up by 1.79 per cent and 1.44 per cent, respectively.

Positive macroeconomic data supported the India market.

Indias Services PMI increased to 61.8 from 59 on MoM basis, while the countrys Composite PMI increased to 61.2 in January from 58.5 in December 2023, he said.

Tata Motors, Coal India, BPCL, Sun Pharma, and Cipla were among the top gainers on the Nifty on Monday, while UPL, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Life, and Grasim Industries were among the top losers, Vidwani said.

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities, said Asian stocks were mostly lower on Monday after a robust US jobs report dashed expectations of a near-term interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve, with Chinese shares again leading the declines even after the market regulator in Beijing pledged to crack down on abuses and protect the small investors.

On Sunday, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said it would redouble enforcement of measures against crimes such as market manipulation and malicious short selling, while guiding more medium and long-term funds into the market.

European stocks were mixed on Monday.