Stock market today: Nifty 50, Sensex end flat; Powell’s Jackson Hole speech in focus

Stock market today: Indian stock market benchmarks, the Nifty 50 and the Sensex, ended flat on Friday, August 23, ahead of the US Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole conference expected later today.

The Sensex closed 33 points, or 0.04 per cent, up at 81,086.21, while the Nifty 50 ended 12 points, or 0.05 per cent, up at 24,823.15.

Indian stock market ended flat even as major Asian and European peers were largely positive and the dollar hovered near one-year lows. Investors are now focused on the Fed Chair's speech, seeking clues on upcoming US rate cuts.

"Ahead of the Fed chair Powell’s speech, the Indian indices oscillated around the flat trajectory, and mixed global market sentiments further catalysed this scenario. Meanwhile, investors are exercising caution and awaiting Powell’s signals for more insights on the interest rate path," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, observed.

The domestic market lacks fresh triggers. While a 25 bps Fed rate cut in September is fairly discounted, the market's premium valuations and unimpressive Q1 earnings of India Inc. seem to have capped the upside.

The Nifty 50 has closed in the green for seven consecutive sessions, though five of those sessions saw gains of less than 0.5 per cent. Overall, the index has managed an overall gain of 2.8 per cent during this period.

Strong retail participation has kept the Indian stock market up even as foreign portfolio investors have been selling Indian equities this month.

According to NSDL data, foreign investors have sold Indian equities worth ₹16,305 crore this month till August 22.

"While many positives, such as robust domestic macro, sustained earnings growth, and political stability, have already been factored into current Indian market valuations, strong retail participation in Indian markets—directly and via mutual funds—with SIP figures crossing 20,000 crore continues to act as a positive trigger for our markets," Jyoti Vaswani, the chief investment officer (CIO) of Canara HSBC Life Insurance, told Mint.

On Friday, the Nifty Midcap 150 index fell half a per cent, while the Smallcap 250 index ended 0.12 per cent up. Nifty Auto jumped 1.12 per cent among the sectoral indices, ending as a solitary sectoral gainer. Nifty Realty plunged 2.43 per cent to end as the top loser among sectoral indices, followed by the Media and IT indices, each falling 1 per cent.

Shares of Bajaj Auto (up 4.74 per cent), Coal India (up 1.70 per cent) and Bharti Airtel (up 1.59 per cent) closed as the top gainers in the Nifty 50 index. Conversely, shares of LTIMindtree (down 1.27 per cent), Wipro (down 1.16 per cent) and ONGC (down 1.01 per cent) closed as the top loser in the index.

According to Jatin Gedia, a technical research analyst at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas, the Nifty's up move appears slightly overstretched. It has risen higher without any meaningful pullback towards the hourly moving averages.

"The hourly momentum indicator has a negative crossover and divergence. Thus, it can be an intraday dip, so caution on longs is advised. The Nifty is also trading close to the 78.6 per cent retracement mark of 24,830, which shall restrict further upside. Thus, the overall trend remains sideways, and the consolidation range is 24,200 – 25,000," said Gedia.

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