NEW DELHI: Amid a volatile session, benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty gained marginally on Tuesday. This is the fifth straight session when the two indices closed in the green on the back of positive global cues, strong Q1 earnings and foreign fund inflows.
The 30-share index Sensex ended 20.86 points higher at 58,136.36. During the day, it hit a high of 58,328.41 and a low of 57,744.70. The broader Nifty ended at 17,345.45, up 5.40 points. Indian and global markets are expected to remain highly volatile even as at present bulls are seen in a dominant position.
A lot will depend on the US-China tension over US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s expected visit to Taiwan and on the outcome of the RBI’s monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting. Analysts at large anticipate the RBI to hike the repo rate by 35-50 bps.
“We feel the mounting US-China tensions over Taiwan could emerge as the main event risk in the near term. India VIX, which measures the expected volatility in the market too spiked 6.5% to 18.64 levels. Technically speaking, the immediate support for Nifty is seen at 17121 and below the same, expect the index to quickly slip towards 16750-16800 zone,” said Prashanth Tapse - Research Analyst, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd.
Pelosi’s arrival in Taiwan has already impacted the Asian equity market with the Hang Seng falling 2.36% while China’s Shanghai Composite plunged 2.26%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down by 1.42%. Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities Ltd, said that bulls looked tired today, as at one point Sensex was down more than 300 points, but managed to reverse the trend at the close.