Sensex, Nifty turn volatile; 10 things to know about today's trend

Markets were mixed overseas as investors fretted upon the rising geopolitical trade tensions between US and China. Markets have become volatile worldwide on the back of mounting fears over economic impact of coronavirus, suggest experts

Benchmark Sensex and Nifty turned volatile on Wednesday, amid mixed cues from global markets.

Amid buying pressure in banking and financials, Sensex climbed 215 points at 30,826 and Nifty rose 72 points to 9,100.

Markets were mixed overseas as investors fretted upon the rising geopolitical trade tensions between US and China. Markets have become volatile worldwide on the back of mounting fears over economic impact of coronavirus, suggest experts. This also implies global investors have taken a back seat to try hands in such a volatile market.

Sectorally, except for media, auto, pharma and FMCG, all the other indices traded in green territory, with heavy buying seen in banking and financial stocks.

1. Gainers and losers today: HCL Tech, HDFC Bank, Maruti, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, Birla Corporation, MMTC and Meghmani Organics were among the top gainers. On the contrary, ITC, Reliance Industries, M&M, Ultratech Cement, Asian Paints, Titan and NTPC were among the top losers today.

2. Continuous spike in coronavirus cases: India's total coronavirus cases have now surpassed 1.45 lakh including 60,490 recoveries and 4,167 death toll. Globally, there are 56.84 lakh confirmed cases and 3.52 lakh deaths from the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak as of today.

3. Volatility index: India VIX, plunged over 2.41% to 31.71 levels. "We feel the upcoming derivatives expiry will keep the participants on toes and we reiterate to cautious view," said Ajit Mishra, VP - Research at Religare Broking.

4. Extended fall: Falling for the third consecutive session, domestic benchmarks gave up initial gains on Wednesday to trade on a tepid note. Just as last week, the market has been consolidating in the narrow range of 9000-9200, on back of muted earnings season and rising number of coronavirus cases.

5. Technical outlook: As per technical charts, Nifty's support levels are at 8,960-8,900, while its resistance levels line up at 9,130-9,230. According to experts, bearish conditions will activate below 8,900 and from there, the index can accelerate towards 8,800 level.

6. Currency Market: Indian Rupee opened flat at 75.67 per dollar at the interbank forex exchange compared to the last closing of 75.66 per dollar.

7. Earnings Season: Meanwhile, Sun Pharma, Dabur, Heritage Foods, India Grid Trust, Foseco, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail, Vaibhav Global, United Spirits, Tata Investments, Quess, Ujjivan Financial Services among others will report March quarter earnings today.

8. FII and DII data: On a net basis, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) invested Rs 4,716.13 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) infused Rs 2,841.09 crore worth in equities on Tuesday.

9. Growth Outlook: Fitch sees India's GDP contracting by 5 per cent, which is a sharp decline from 0.8 per cent growth, earlier projected by the global rating agency in late April. This was on account of slump in economic activities following a "very severe" lockdown that has lasted much longer than expected.

10. Mixed global cues: Overseas, markets were trading on a mixed note on Wednesday. US markets closed sharply higher yesterday as optimism grew about the reopening of the economy and a potential coronavirus vaccine. US Futures (Dow Jones) traded at 25059, up 57 points or 0.23%. Asian stocks, on the contrary, were witnessing mixed trend over concerns of rising geopolitical trade tensions between the world's two biggest economies. SGX Nifty, Kospi and Taiwan turned green, Shanghai, Nikkei and Hang Seng were trading marginally in red.