Markets on May 20: Banks, energy lug the markets down (Profit booking in heavyweights)

The Indian markets continued their downward trend during the final hour of trade as profit booking amongst the index heavyweights led the ...

The Indian markets continued their downward trend during the final hour of trade as profit booking amongst the index heavyweights led the Sensex to end the day with losses of 241 points. The Nifty closed lower by 48 points.However, stocks from the mid-cap and small-cap space ended higher by 6.03% and 8.86% respectively. Buying activity was witnessed in stocks from the metal and automobile sectors while stocks from the banking and energy sectors ended the day on a weak note. In today’s session also the Nifty saw a constant supply near the 50% retracement level. We can expect support near the hourly moving averages the levels for which are packed at 4148 and 3984. Bulls with 1,131 advances and 94 declines dominated the market breadth.

On the hourly chart, the momentum oscillator KST gave a negative crossover. Our short-term bias is down for a target of 3900 with reversal packed at 4510. However, our mid-term bias is still up for a target of 4550 with reversal placed at 3700.

Among the 30 stocks that make the Sensex Tata Motors (up 19%), Tata Steel (up 13%) and Mahindra & Mahindra (up 8%) led the pack of gainers while DLF (down 8%), ICICI Bank (down 7%) and Bharti Airtel (down 6%) led the pack of losers.