Nifty, Sensex End Third Week Higher Despite Friday's Losses: Market Wrap

The NSE Nifty 50 snapped its six-session winning streak on Friday and the S&P BSE Sensex ended lower after two consecutive days of gains. Despite this, the Indian benchmarks managed to end higher for the third week in a row.

At close, the Nifty was 37.10 points or 0.14% down at 26,178.95 and the Sensex was 264.27 points or 0.31% lower at 85,571.85. Intraday, both the Nifty and Sensex gained around 0.2% to hit fresh highs of 26,277.35 points and 85,978.25 points respectively.

For the traders now, 26,100/85,300 and 26,000/85,000 will act as key support zones, while 26,400–26,500/85,900–86,300 will act as crucial resistance areas for the bulls, according to Amol Athawale, vice president of technical research at Kotak Securities.

However, he said the sentiment could change below 26,000/85,000. "Below the same, traders may prefer to exit out from the trading long positions."

For Bank Nifty, Athawale said the medium-term texture is bullish but due to temporary overbought conditions, "we could see range-bound activity in the near future".

"For traders now, 53,500 and 53,100 would be the key support zones while 54,500–54,800 could be the profit-booking areas for the bulls," he said. "However, below 53,100, the uptrend would be vulnerable."

Shares of HDFC Bank Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd., Bharti Airtel Ltd., Larsen & Toubro Ltd. and Power Grid Corp. dragged the Nifty lower the most.

Reliance Industries Ltd., Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Bharat Petroleum Corp., Infosys Ltd. and Cipla Ltd. limited the fall.

The market breadth was split between buyers and sellers as 1,995 stocks rose, 1,947 declined and 118 stocks remained unchanged on the BSE.

The broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices as the BSE Midcap and the SmallCap indices ended 0.29% and 0.07% higher, respectively.

On the BSE, 12 sectors advanced, and eight declined out of 20. The BSE Realty declined the most, and the Oil & Gas rose the most.

This week, the Nifty gained 1.5% and Sensex added 1.2%. All sectoral indices, but Nifty FMCG, ended higher. Nifty Metal rose the most.