Market Stalls at 26K: Why Sensex, Nifty Ended Flat Amid Profit-Taking

At the end of the trading day, the BSE Sensex was down 150.68 points or 0.18 per cent at 84,628.16, and the Nifty50 at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was down 29.85 points or 0.11 per cent at 25,936.20.

Sectors such as Consumer and IT led the market decline, while metal stocks rose on optimism over a potential US-China trade deal. On the other hand, the PSU banks rose after reports that the government may raise the foreign institutional investment (FII) ceiling.

On the sectoral front, Nifty Metal was the top sectoral gainer, ending up 1.23 per cent, followed by Nifty PSU Banks, which ended up 1.21 per cent. On the other hand, Nifty Realty & Nifty CPSE were the top two sectoral losers.

On the stock front, JSW Steel and Tata Steel ended up as the top gainers, while Bajaj Finserv and Trent emerged as the top two losers.

The broader market indices relatively outperformed the frontline indices.

The Midcap Index ended 0.02 per cent lower, while the Smallcap Index closed the day with a modest gain of 0.02 per cent.

Shah added that on the daily chart, the Nifty Index has formed a small-bodied candle with a minor upper shadow and a long lower shadow, indicating indecision amongst the market participants throughout the day.

Over the past two sessions, Nifty has struggled to decisively move past the 26,000-26,050 zone, which now serves as a near-term hurdle.

"The advance-decline ratio was tilted in favour of the bears as a total of 274 stocks out of the Nifty 500 closed in the red, indicating that the selling pressure was broad-based and not just limited to heavyweight names," said Sudeep Shah, Head - Technical and Derivatives Research at SBI Securities.

"Overall, Nifty appears to be taking a breather after a strong breakout. Looking at key levels, the zone of 26,050-26,100 will act as an immediate resistance for the Index," Shah added.

"Nifty has a strong support at the 25800 level, from where it bounced in today's fall. The index on the weekly chart is trading on the upper Bollinger band, indicating strength in the index. The momentum indicators are also indicating further upside for the index," said Praveen Dwarakanath, Vice President of Hedged.in.

Observing the markets, Siddhartha Khemka - Head of Research, Wealth Management, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, said, "We expect the markets to remain firm, tracking positive global cues, macro-economic data and domestic Q2 earnings."

- ANI