Indian equity benchmarks managed to notch small gains but closed the week lower as investors digested a hawkish sounding U.S. Federal Reserve and a selloff in technology shares.
The S&P BSE Sensex was little changed at 31,056 after fluctuating between gains and losses throughout the trading session. The NSE Nifty 50 Index climbed 0.1 percent to 9,588 – the second close below the 9,600-mark.
Both the key benchmarks posted losses for the week – the Sensex (-0.6 percent) for the second time, and a first for the Nifty (-0.8 percent) in six. It was also their worst weekly performance in two months.
“9,600 was more of a physiologically level. Technically, 9,540 and then 9,500 are the more important support levels to watch out for,” Pushkar Kanetkar, assistant vice-president (technical research) at GEPL Capital, told BloombergQuint over the phone.
Kanetkar expects the Nifty range to remain between 9,500 on the downside and 9,700 on the upside. “Right now, the bias is towards the lower end of the trading range,” he added.
In terms of strategy, he advised investors to remain cautious at current levels. He said a drop below 9,500 would be an opportunity to go short on the I.T. and pharma stocks, while a break above 9,700 should be used to go long on the financials.
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