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Below is the Daily Market Commentary By Mr. Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd

Equity markets started the new week on a negative note. Nifty lost 230 points (-1.5%) to close at 14,638 while Sensex lost 871 points (-1.7%) to end at 49,159. Broader markets were also weak with Nifty MidCap 100/Nifty Smallcap closing -1.3%/-1.5% respectively. HCL tech, TCS, Wipro, Britannia and Infosys were the top gainers in Nifty whereas Bajaj Finance, Indusind Bank, SBI, Eicher Motors and M&M were the top losers. Sectors like IT (+2%) and Metals (+0.9%) were strong and closed in green and sectors like Pharma (-0.4%), Infra (-1.4%), Energy (-1.5%), FMCG (-1.6%), Banking (-3.5%), Financials (-3.3%), Auto (-2.5%) and Media (-3%) were weak and closed in red.

Global cues were positive led by US President Joe Biden’s announcement of a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure investment plan. US stock futures were trading higher due to strong bounce in US jobs growth last month amid accelerating vaccine rollout. European markets too were trading higher. However, Domestically, Nifty opened gap down and witnessed selling pressure throughout the day after the Maharashtra govt. announced new restrictions including a night curfew from 8pm to 7am in the state and a strict lockdown over the weekends from Friday 8pm to Monday 7am due to sharp surge in the Covid cases.

Technically, Nifty formed a Bearish candle with long lower shadow indicating overall weakness but some support based buying seen in sharp declines. Now it has to cross and hold above 14700 zones to witness an up move towards 14850-15000 zones while on the downside support exists at 14450-14300 levels. India VIX moved up by 6.2% from 19.98 to 21.21 levels. Spurt in volatility from lower levels is keeping the market volatile with selling pressure at higher zones.

Going ahead, Indian markets are likely to track global cues after the recent announcement of infra investment plan by US president. Further investors would now focus on upcoming quarterly results which would kick start from mid-April. Domestically, concerns over the fast spreading 2^nd wave of Covid in India continues to remain. Economic activities might take a hit due to partial lockdowns and markets would react accordingly in coming weeks. Overall markets are likely to remain in a consolidative mode for some time awaiting for fresh positive triggers. Hence investors would do well by gradually accumulating good quality companies on any declines in the market.

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