Indian stocks have a steady start to the new week

Due to mixed signals from US global benchmark markets and uncertainty surrounding US monetary policy rates, Indian stock indices began the new week mostly unchanged. Less than 0.1% separated India’s Sensex and Nifty indexes from their Friday closing at the opening bell. Coal India, Divis Labs, Apollo Hospitals, HCL Technologies, and NTPC were the top five gainers among the Nifty 50 stocks, while the top five losers were Axis Bank, Nestle India, Mahindra and Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Asian Paints. The top gainers among the sectoral indices were Nifty IT, Nifty realty, Nifty pharma, and Nifty PSU bank, while the top loser was Nifty private bank.

“Our view is that the overall market situation is positive, but due to a temporary overbought situation, we may see some range-bound action,” said Shrikant Chouhan – Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities.
Till last week, markets extended their bullish tone for the third successive week and gained over a per cent.
“Global cues are largely dictating the trend and we expect this trend to continue in the coming week as well. Among all the major indices, the US markets are showing noticeable strength and have recovered considerably in the last three weeks,” said Ajit Mishra, SVP – Technical Research, Religare Broking.