Raja Venkatraman recommends three stocks for 24 July

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Stock market recap: Indian equity markets extended their losing streak for the fourth straight session, pressured by surging crude oil prices amid heightened tensions in West Asia.

The Sensex and Nifty closed sharply lower, with the Nifty slipping below the 22,900 mark. Selling was broad-based, though a few stocks managed to buck the trend.

On 23 July, Indian equity markets extended their losing streak for the fourth straight session, pressured by surging crude oil prices amid heightened tensions in West Asia. The Sensex and Nifty closed sharply lower, with the Nifty slipping below the 22,900 mark. Selling was broad-based, though a few stocks managed to buck the trend. Adani Enterprises, Shriram Finance, Nestle India, Adani Ports, and Cipla were among the biggest losers, while Bajaj Auto, SBI Life Insurance, M&M, TCS, and Eicher Motors posted gains.

Sectoral performance was largely weak, with Nifty Realty leading the decline, down nearly 2%, followed by Oil & Gas, Infrastructure, PSU Bank, and Energy indices, each losing around 1%. Metals, Pharma, FMCG, Consumer Durables, and IT also ended in the red. On the brighter side, Nifty Auto rose 0.66%, supported by strong momentum, while Nifty Media added 0.26%. Midcap and smallcap indices slipped 1% each, reflecting broad market weakness.

Nifty has been on a roller coaster ride. After a static collapse seen a few weeks ago, the attempt to rebound has been quite weak. Last week, we mentioned that the markets are poised at an interesting stage. The June series, the broader indices attempt to revive, has been reset as every recovery is rendered ineffective. The steady attempt at moving higher in the last three months are unable to find encouraging triggers to fuel the bullish cause.

While RBI did not offer much rope in the recent policy by maintaining a status quo on the rates it would now move on to some triggers emanating from the macro numbers. With the news on the war front not stabilizing we could witness a volatile market trend in the coming week. Bank Nifty has been clearly under listless while maintaining an upward bias that has generated widespread disappointment. The market was largely docile as the participants were getting mixed signals about government initiative to improve the fiscal deficit.

In last week's letter, we were looking for a rally to emerge. From the chart below, we can see that the support levels are now under threat. A doji indicating uncertainty has been formed at the start of the week, suggesting that we are poised at a tentative stage as we finished the week strongly. On the other hand, the Bank Nifty has been a bit of a disappointment, as despite decent numbers, the sell-off at higher levels has started impacting the Nifty, highlighting that this sector is now impacting its moves.

It was therefore left to the other sectors to carry the day. But the breadth was negative overall and helped to trigger stock-specific actions. The options buildup also indicated that sentiment had shifted back to bearish as we begin the week.

Raja Venkatraman is co-founder, NeoTrader. His Sebi-registered research analyst registration no. is INH000016223.

Investments in securities are subject to market risks. Read all the related documents carefully before investing. Registration granted by Sebi and certification from NISM in no way guarantees performance of the intermediary or provide any assurance of returns to investors.

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations given in this article are those of individual analysts. These do not represent the views of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.

Raja Venkatraman is the co-founder of NeoTrader, where he heads the training division. He conducts both offline and live market workshops, seminars, and webinars. He has been working under the guidance of Dr C K Narayan, his mentor and ...