Nifty Falls Below 24,000 Mark Amid Volatile Monthly Expiry Session

Market Volatility Continues: Indian Benchmark Indices End Below 24,000 Mark

On March 28, the Indian stock market saw a volatile expiry session, with the benchmark indices paring some of the previous session's gains. The Nifty 50 ended below the 24,000 mark, amid broad-based selling, led by financial, IT, and auto stocks.

The market's sentiment was weighed down by unresolved geopolitical tensions, elevated crude oil prices, and persistent foreign fund outflows. At close, the Sensex was down 416.72 points or 0.54 percent at 76,886.91, and the Nifty was down 97 points or 0.40 percent at 23,995.70.

The top laggards on the Nifty 50 included Maruti Suzuki, Axis Bank, HCL Technologies, Shriram Finance, and InterGlobe Aviation. In contrast, gains were led by ONGC, Coal India, Nestle, Adani Enterprises, and Reliance Industries.

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Broader markets outperformed the benchmarks, with the Nifty Midcap index rising 0.3% and the Smallcap index advancing 0.4%. Nearly 150 stocks touched their 52-week high on the BSE, including NLC India, Vardhman Textiles, Kirloskar Oil, Adani Power, Welspun Corp, Glenmark Pharma, Aarti Industries, Tata Power, Power Finance, SAIL, NMDC, Honasa Consumer, Ather Energy, JSW Energy, Adani Energy, HFCL, Hindalco Industries, Lloyds Metals, and Schneider Infra.

Among individual stocks, Adani Total Gas shares gained 2.7% on robust Q4 results, One Mobikwik Systems shares surged nearly 2% after 7.65% equity change hands in block trades, and Coal India shares rose 3% on better Q4 earnings.

Market analysts have a mixed outlook for the market. Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities, notes that the Nifty got entangled within the bands of 20EMA and 50EMA, and it seems that the market is waiting for cues for the next directional move. The market does not appear convinced enough to move beyond a particular range.

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On the other hand, Nilesh Jain, VP- Head of Technical and Derivative research at Centrum Finverse, believes that the markets resumed their downward trend after a brief pause in the previous session. The Nifty index encountered resistance at its 50-DMA around the 24,200 mark and formed a small-bodied bearish candle with an upper shadow. Going ahead, volatility is likely to persist, and as long as the index sustains above 23,800, a pullback towards the 24,200 level can be expected.