Weak global cues amid concerns that the US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan would sour the relationship between the US and China kept the market lower on August 2.
Besides, investors booked some profit after the recent gains in the market as concerns over a recession in major economies of the world persisted.
Frontline indices the Sensex and the Nifty ended flat on August 2. Sensex ended at 58,136.36, just 21 points, or 0.04% up. Nifty closed with a nominal gain of 5 points or 0.03%.
Mid and smallcaps, however, clocked decent gains as the BSE Midcap index rose 0.50% while the Smallcap index rose 0.34%.
Among the sectoral indices, BSE Realty fell 1.74% while BSE Power and Utilities indices rose up to 2%.
Shares of IndusInd Bank, Asian Paints, NTPC, Maruti and Hindustan Unilever ended as the top gainers in the Sensex index while those of Tech Mahindra, HDFC, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel and HDFC Bank ended as the top laggards.
Some 124 stocks, including ITC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bank of Baroda, Coal India, Federal Bank, Adani Enterprises, Adani Transmission and Blue Dart Express, hit their 52-week highs in intraday trade on BSE.
Crude oil prices fell further on a weak demand outlook. Benchmark Brent Crude traded below the $100 a barrel mark while the rupee jumped 31 paise higher at 78.72 per dollar.
"Global indicators did not favour bulls, with most Asian and Western markets trading over concerns of rising geopolitical tension between the US and China. Additionally, economic data point to a decrease in demand, and major markets throughout the world are trading with recessionary fears. The domestic market, however, has proven resilient thanks to increased demand in heavyweights and a strengthening Indian rupee underpinned by falling US treasury yields and FIIs buying," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Technicals
On the technical front, after an intraday correction, the Nifty took support near 17,200 and then recovered.
As per Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities, the higher bottom formation on intraday charts is indicating the continuation of an uptrend in the near future.
"As long as the index is trading above 17,200, the uptrend texture is likely to continue up to 17,400-17,450. On the flip side, below 17,200, traders may prefer to exit from long positions, as the index could slip till 17,150-17,100,” said Chouhan.
Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities pointed out that the Nifty maintained its uptrend on the daily chart and the daily RSI is in bullish crossover and rising.
"The trend is likely to remain bullish as long as the Nifty holds above 17,000. On the higher end resistance is visible at 17,400-17,500," said De.
Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts and not of MintGenie.
