Indian equity benchmarks continued to fall on Wednesday after a day's breather, as global growth concerns sent jitters across world markets already struggling against the prospect of aggressive rate hikes and resurgent COVID infections.

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Most sectors were in the red on Dalal Street, with heavyweights such as Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank and Infosys being the biggest drags on both main indices.

What do the charts suggest for Dalal Street now?

The Nifty50 has formed a small negative candle on the daily chart with minor upper and lower shadows, suggesting indecision among market participants at lower levels, according to Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities.

"The Nifty appears to be preparing for a big move. The overall chart pattern is weighing high on the downside," he said.

17,000-17,100 an important zone

The 50-scrip index appears to be in a corrective phase for the short term, with resistance at 17,315, said Sahaj Agrawal, Head of Research-Derivatives at Kotak Securities.

"From a medium-term perspective, we broadly remain positive and advise accumulating on dips. We see value in select financial and energy stocks and expect IT stocks to trade with a negative bias,” he said.

Here are key things to know about the market before the April 28 session:

SGX Nifty

At 7:39 am on Thursday, Singapore Exchange (SGX) Nifty futures -- an early indicator of the Nifty index -- were up 5.5 points at 17,076.5, suggesting a sluggish start ahead on Dalal Street.

Global markets

Equities in other Asian markets started the day higher but cautiously, tracking mild gains on Wall Street overnight. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.3 percent in early hours.

Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 0.6 percent, China's Shanghai Composite 0.2 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.6 percent, South Korea's KOSPI 0.4 percent and Singapore's Straits Times 0.2 percent.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.7 percent. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 and the Dow rose 0.2 percent each, as strong revenue forecasts from Microsoft and Visa took investors' mind off concerns about slowing global economic growth and rising interest rates.

What to expect on Dalal Street

HDFC Securities' Shetti believes support at 16,800 is a crucial base of long positions and immediate resistance placed at 17,150.

Thursday is likely to be volatile with the expiry of April F&O contracts due by the end of the session.

Option writers are not expecting a closing below 17,000 on the expiry day, said Ruchit Jain, Lead Research at 5paisa.com. "If the market sustains below 17,000 during the day, there would be a tug of war which could lead to higher intraday volatility," he said.

Key levels to watch out for

The 50-strong gauge slipped below its five- and 50-day moving averages after a day's breather. It is now below all six main levels in a bearish sign.

Choice Broking Executive Director Sumeet Bagadia mentioned the following levels to watch out for:

FII/DII activity

Foreign institutional investors (FII) net sold Indian shares worth Rs 4,064.5 crore on Wednesday, according to provisional exchange data. However, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) made net purchases of Rs 1,917.5 crore.

ALSO READ: FIIs sold $5 billion worth Indian shares for 6th straight month

Call/put open interest

The maximum call open interest is accumulated at the strike of 17,500, with 1.7 lakh contracts, and the next highest at the strikes of 17,300 and 17,200, with 1.6 lakh contracts each, data shows. On the other hand, the maximum put open interest is at 17,000, with two lakh contracts, and then 16,400, with 1.5 lakh.

This suggests immediate resistance in the 17,200-17,300 band followed by a major hurdle at 17,500, and immediate support at 17,000.

Long build-up

Here are five stocks that saw an increase in open interest as well as price:

Long unwinding

(Decrease in open interest as well as price)

Short covering

(Increase in price and decrease in open interest)

Short build-up

(Decrease in price and increase in open interest)

52-week highs

A total of nine stocks on the BSE 500 -- the broadest index on the bourse -- hit 52-week highs, including Reliance Industries, Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, Adani Power, Schaeffler and IIFL Finance.

52-week lows

Only one stock hit a 52-week low: Infibeam Avenues.

Fear index

The India VIX -- also known as the fear index -- rose 7.4 percent to settle at 20.6 on Wednesday.

(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)

First Published:Apr 27, 2022 7:15 PM IST