Stock market today: Indian stock market benchmarks the Sensex and the Nifty 50 ended in the green for the third consecutive session on Tuesday, April 23, amid positive global cues.
With no major signs of escalation in tensions in West Asia, the market's focus has shifted to corporate earnings which has been mixed so far. A significant drop in the volatility index indicated participants are confident about the near-term market trajectory.
Fear gauge India VIX which indicates how much the Nifty 50 index is expected to change in the next 30 days, fell 20 per cent to reach near the level of 10. A low India VIX shows the market is stable and predictable.
"Theoretically VIX depicts the volatility expectation for the next 30 calendar days. So, the lower the VIX the more confident, the traders are about the ongoing upswing. Options traders also react to such scenarios by reducing the expectation of premium expansion," said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
James, however, underscored that the steep fall of VIX today, especially when Nifty barely rose, needs to be factored in when acting on the VIX’s signal.
"VIX is calculated based on bid-ask quotes of near as well as next month's Nifty option contracts, and contracts expiring from 26th April onwards would have a lot size of 25, half of what is in play now, which could have a role in bid asks getting tighter," said James.
Concerns over geopolitical tensions and the dim prospects of rate cuts by the US Fed have taken a back seat, with market participants closely observing corporate earnings to bet on quality stocks.
Sensex opened at 74,048.94 against its previous close of 73,648.62 and touched its intraday high and low of 74,059.89 and 73,688.31 respectively.
The index ended with a slim gain of 90 points, or 0.12 per cent, at 73,738.45 as gains in shares of select heavyweights such as Bharti Airtel, ITC, Infosys and SBI were largely offset by losses in shares of Reliance Industries.
Reliance share price fell over a per cent a day after announcing its March quarter result.
Nifty 50 opened the day at 22,447.05 against its previous close of 22,336.40 and touched its intraday high and low of 22,447.55 and 22,349.45 respectively. The index closed the day at 22,368, up 32 points, or 0.14 per cent.
Mid and smallcap indices outperformed the benchmarks. The BSE Midcap index rose 0.52 per cent and the Smallcap index jumped 1.05 per cent.
The overall market capitalisation of the firms listed on the BSE rose to nearly ₹400 lakh crore from nearly ₹398 lakh crore in the previous session, making investors richer by about ₹2 lakh crore in a single session.
Over 250 stocks, including Bharti Airtel, Maruti, Eicher Motors, DMart, Grasim and Hindustan Aeronautics, hit their fresh 52-week highs in intraday trade on BSE.
Meanwhile, crude oil prices saw some uptick boosted by strong economic data out of Europe. The rupee rose 3 paise to end at 83.34 per dollar.
24 stocks closed in the green in the Nifty 50 index while 25 suffered losses. One stock - Kotak Mahindra Bank - ended flat.
Shares of Grasim (up 3.90 per cent), Bharti Airtel (up 3.83 per cent) and Nestle (up 1.66 per cent) closed as the top gainer in the Nifty 50 index.
Shares of Sun Pharma (down 3.56 per cent), BPCL (down 1.65 per cent) and Reliance Industries (down 1.36 per cent) ended as the top losers in the Nifty pack.
Among sectoral indices, Nifty Pharma (down 0.96 per cent), Healthcare (down 0.95 per cent), Oil & Gas (down 0.73 per cent) and Metal (down 0.34 per cent) ended with losses.
Nifty Realty jumped 2.58 per cent, while FMCG, Consumer Durables and IT Indices rose over half a per cent each.
Nifty Bank ended with a slim gain of 0.10 per cent.
"The domestic market exhibited rangebound performance, tracking positive global cues with sustained outperformance of the broader market. While tensions between Iran and Israel were perceived to have limited escalation, the uptick in crude prices suggests investors’ reassessing the risks. With higher levels of the dollar index and US bond yields, FIIs are expected to continue with outflows, but inflows from DIIs are supporting the recovery," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.
"The Nifty remained sideways throughout the session as it failed to provide any directional breakout. However, the overall trend remains positive as the index closed above the critical moving average. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is showing a bullish crossover with a reading below 60. On the higher end, the range of 22,350-22,400 is likely to act as a resistance zone; a decisive breakout above 22,400 might trigger a rally in the market. On the lower end, support is positioned at 22,250; a breach below this level might weaken the bullish sentiment," said Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities.
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