The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) will be closed on April 4 in observance of Mahavir Jayanti.
Metal and bullion wholesale commodities markets will likewise remain closed. In addition, there will be no trading activity on the foreign exchange and commodities futures markets.
On April 3, the S&P BSE Sensex closed the day up 114.92 points, or 0.19 percent, at 59,106.44, while the Nifty rose 38.20 points, or 0.22 percent, to 17,390.
“Domestic equities were lackluster prior to the result of the RBI policy meeting. Nifty began higher but quickly surrendered its initial gains, trading flat for the most of the afternoon. It rebounded in the last hour to close 38 points higher at 17398 levels, according to Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
“Sectorally, it was a mixed bag, with significant purchasing in the Auto and PSU Bank sectors. Once automakers reported better-than-expected monthly results, there was renewed interest in the car sector. Since Tata Power and Adani announced a price increase for the Mumbai region, the power industry has also been in the spotlight.
“Upstream oil businesses were also in the spotlight as crude oil prices reached a monthly high following OPEC’s unexpected output cut. This week’s most important event will be the RBI’s policy statement, where investors will look for indications of a stop in rate hikes. This, along with the reduced trading week, would maintain the market’s volatility,” he added.
Hero MotoCorp, Coal India, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, and Eicher Motors were among the top Nifty gainers, while BPCL, Apollo Hospitals, Adani Enterprises, ITC, and Infosys were among the worst performers.
On the sectoral front, the auto and PSU bank indices each rose 1 percent, while the real estate index rose roughly 1 percent, but FMCG, metal, power, oil & gas, and information technology stocks declined.
The BSE midcap index increased by 0.4%, while the small-cap index increased by 1.0%.
“The benchmark indices experienced range-bound activity. Although the Sensex gained 114 points, the Nifty ended 38 points higher. While intraday profit booking was observed in a few Oil and Gas and Metal stocks, the Auto and PSU Banks indices both increased by over 1 percent,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail) at Kotak Securities.
“Technically, the Nifty is exhibiting a bullish pattern on daily charts, and it is continuously forming a higher bottom on intraday charts, which is generally bullish. The market structure is bullish in our view, but due to briefly overbought conditions, we could see some profit taking at higher levels,” he added.
Buying on dips and selling on rallies is the optimal strategy for traders at this time. Important support and resistance levels for the index in the near future will be 17,300–17,250 and 17,500–17,550, respectively.
On April 3, the rupee closed at 82.35 per dollar, 16 paise weaker than its previous closing of 82.19.
