Tuesday’s Market Movers: IT stocks, Airtel take a beating; cement stocks rally; 66 stocks flash 'buy' signals

NEW DELHI: Indian blue chips pared morning gains and closed in the red on Tuesday, while the broader market outperformed amid a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in India.

As the market braced for the expiry of futures and options contracts, trading narrowed, making it difficult for traders to take positions in any particular direction, said Manish Hathiramani, an independent analyst.

IT and telecom stocks came under selling pressure while consumer-facing names like Titan, Nestle India, IRC and Maruti Suzuki saw demand. BSE Sensex plunged 450 points from day‘s high to close 63 points lower. Its NSE peer Nifty fell 10 points.

Hereunder, we tried to capture what really happened in Tuesday’s session:

Cement stocks rally
Shares of cement companies gained in hopes of a spike in demand as construction works started coming back on track. Ultratech Cement added 3.64 per cent to Rs 3,771 while Shree Cement gained 3.29 per cent to Rs 20,570. Indian Cements, Ambuja Cements and JK Cements also rose up to 6 per cent.

Broader market rallies
Broader market indices bucked the trend in their headline peers and rallied on the back of demand from buyers. Nifty Smallcap index gained 0.76 per cent while Nifty Midcap index rose 1.32 per cent and the broader Nifty500 added 0.11 per cent. But Nifty50 dipped 0.11 per cent.

Nifty Pharma snaps 3-day winning streak
Nifty Pharma snapped three-day winning streak and dropped 1.22 per cent dragged by up to 5 per cent loss in Piramal Enterprises, Cadila Healthcare, Sun Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma and Cipla, among others.

Nifty Metal’s biggest gain in May
Nifty Metal jumped the most this month on positive commentary from China. The 2.68 per cent rise in the metal index “was driven partly due to measures announced to support the Chinese economy, which accounts for a major portion of global demand for metals,” said Vinod Nair of Geojit Financial Services. Jindal Steel was the biggest gainer in the pack, up 14 per cent, while JSW Steel and NMDC rose 6 and 4 per cent, respectively.

Market breadth favours advances
The market breadth favoured gainers on BSE with 1,225 stocks closing in the green and 1,123 stocks ending the day in the red. About 200 stocks closed unchanged on the exchange.

Insider trade: Angel Fibers, Aavas Fin.
PA Dudhagara of Angel Fibres sold 1.25 lakh shares of the company in an off market transaction. Shares of the company jumped 4.90 per cent to Rs 7.50 following it. Meanwhile, Ghanshyam Rawat of Aavas Financiers released pledge on 7.80 lakh shares while another person created a pledge on 1,500 stocks. The stocks closed down 4.92 per cent to Rs 1,036.

Stocks that hit upper circuits
Over 260 stocks kissed their upper daily limit set by BSE. They included Birla Corporation, Quess Corps, Indiabulls Real Estate, Delta Corps, Future Retail, Future Consumer, Lemon Tree and Edelweiss Financials, among others.

Stocks that gave ‘buy’ signals
As many as 66 stocks crossed above the signal line of the MACD indicator flashing ‘buy’ signal. They included IDFC First Bank, Bank of Baroda, Cipla, JustDial, Asian Paints, Nagarjuna Fertilizer and Simplex Infra, among others.

Where is Nifty headed?
Nifty has been trading below the key overhead resistance of 9,150-9,180 for the last few sessions and analysts have observed a formation of consistent lower highs within a larger range bound movement. “The formation of hammer type candle pattern on the weekly chart signals that any minor weakness from here could be a buying opportunity in the short term. Immediate support to be watched at 8,950. A sustainable move above 9,150-9,180 is likely to lift Nifty towards 9,500 in the short span of time, said Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst HDFC Securities.