Nifty witnessed bullish candle formation on the weekly chart for the fourth consecutive week, indicating the mood is positive, while on the daily charts, there was a small bodied bullish candlestick pattern with a higher high formation.

At close, Sensex was 130.18 points or 0.22 percent up at 59486 while Nifty ended the day with a gain of 39 points or 0.22 percent at 17698.

Nifty started off the day flat at 17660 and remained volatile throughout the session but largely with a positive bias. Nifty hit an intraday high of 17725 and a low of 17598, before closing the session with 39 point gains at 17698, the highest closing level since 8th April 2022.

Mood was also positive in the broader space with moderately decent breadth. Nifty Midcap and Smallcap indices gained seven-tenth of a percent and a quarter of a percent respectively, while about 10 shares advanced against 9 declining shares.

Nifty extended its northward journey for the fifth consecutive session and registered a fresh closing high ahead of inflation and industrial output data due later in the day. Positive European cues, a fall in volatility, and buying in metal, select banking & financial services along with index heavyweight Reliance Industries aided the rally.

Markets will react to the macroeconomic data viz. IIP and CPI and other global cues in early trade on Tuesday. The recent buoyancy on the global front combined with rotational buying across sectors are pointing towards the prevailing up move to extend further with intermediate pause participants should align their positions accordingly.

Ahead of India’s retail inflation data, Benchmark indices settled higher for the fourth straight week. In an extremely volatile trading session on Friday, Metal and Private Banks indices outperformed. Metal index rallied over 4.5 percent and Private Banks rallied over 3.5 percent. While despite strong momentum profit booking was seen in FMCG and selective Media stocks.

Return of FIIs and declining dollar index aided the market rally. While Metals and Oil & Gas garnered buying interest, IT and pharma weighed on sentiments.

Oil and gas stocks were in focus as the government diverted some natural gas from industries to city gas operators in an effort to moderate the prices of CNG and piped cooking gas.

Nifty traded in a tight range as no directional urgency was visible on the last day of the week. On the weekly chart, Nifty has gained for the fourth week in a row suggesting an ongoing bullish trend.

Nifty has posted a fourth consecutive positive weekly close. On the way up, it crossed several short term hurdles and has reached a crucial trendline drawn from the October 2021 high. For the last couple of sessions, Index is hovering near this trendline.

In terms of the level, 17750/17800 is the crucial zone that will determine whether Nifty continues with its northward journey. Thus, a staggered profit booking is recommended for the Nifty short term traders; while the positional traders can continue to ride the trend, they need to tighten the reversal level to 17500.

As long as the index holds the previous bullish gap zone of 17566/17632, uptrend is expected to continue till 17800/17900/18000, but small bouts of volatility and consolidation can’t be ruled out after a rally in four straight week.

Defiant bulls continued to inch upwards with a positive momentum before signing off the session with an indecisive formation. current multi week rally also led to the buy signal on the weekly chart, strengthening medium term sentiment.

However, at a high of 17720 level, it seems to have reached critical resistance points with over bought zones. Hence, for a fresh breakout, he feels the index needs to close above 17,800 levels. In that scenario, the strength can expand towards 18114 level.

A close below 17597, the day’s low, may induce some weakness with an initial target of 17359.

Traders should not initiate fresh longs unless the Nifty registers a close above 17800 level whereas intraday shorting may be considered below 17550 levels for a modest target.

Sector Wise :- Oil & Gas indices rose 2.5 percent and Metal and Power added 1.5 percent each. On the other hand, Pharma index shed 1 percent and Information Technology index was down 0.76 percent.