Indian market opens on a soft note, smallcap index hits a fresh all-time high

Nifty50 and the 30-share BSE Sensex opened Thursday’s session in negative terrain, with both the indices losing about -0.34% and -0.35%, respectively. The Nifty50 index has slipped below the 20-DMA and is trading close to the 22,300 mark, where the PE (Put) writers were active. Furthermore, the volatility gauge - India VIX, has bounced back from the level of 10 and was seen trading higher by +2.5%.

In the early deals, banking and financial service sector stocks were dragging the index lower; on the other hand, the IT sector was lending some support.

Sectoral Performance: The majority of the sectors were trading in red, led by Nifty Realty, Nifty Financial Service and Nifty Bank. The Nifty PSU Bank index gained +0.77%, and Nifty Media is up by +0.74%.

The performance from the broader market indices is resilient as both Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap index were trading higher by +0.22% and +0.66%, respectively. The Nifty Smallcap index has made a fresh 52-week high of 16,863.50. Considering the outperformance by the broader market indices, the market breadth is healthy at about 2:1, i.e. for every two gainers, there is one loser.

In the Nifty50 space, Axis Bank, Sun Pharma and HCL Tech were the top three gainers; on the other hand, Kotak Bank, Tata Consumer and LTIM were the top three losers for the day.

Brent Crude Oil is almost trading flat at USD 88.12 per barrel. Meanwhile, gold prices are witnessing some cool-off, with Gold June Futures trading down by -0.53% at USD 2,325.80.

Overall, volatility would be the hallmark of Thursday’s session on the eve of the F&O expiry of the April series.