An old Ambuja Cements ad film shows actor Boman Irani trying various tricks to break down a wall separating him and his brother but fails at all of them eventually asking "Yeh deewaar tootti kyun nahi hai?" (Why does this wall not break?)

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The same has been the case with the Nifty 50. The index has tried making four attempts to cross its all-time high of 18,887.6 and failed at all four of them. Wednesday saw the index coming within 11 points of the record, but reversed course, only to end 30 points adrift of the all-time high.

Although the Sensex did make an all-time high on an intraday basis and to comfort those who are sulking at the Nifty 50 failing to do so, the index did manage a record closing high above the mark of 18,850. While the HDFC twins lent support in mid-week trading, ITC emerged as the top loser in points terms.

Rajesh Bhosale of Angel One hopes for the Nifty Bank to break out of a month-long range, in order to push the Nifty 50 towards levels of 19,000. Until then, he expects choppy movements in the index to continue and he advises traders to stick to the buy-on-dips strategy. 18,700 - 18,600 remains downside support while 18,940 - 19,000 will be a resistance band.

Despite the sideways movement, the trend of the index remains positive, according to Rupak De of LKP Securities. He sees 18,700 as a key level for the Nifty 50, while he sees the index face difficulty in surpassing levels of 19,000. De expects further rally on the Nifty 50 once it manages to cross 19,000.

The Nifty Bank is stuck in a range of 43,300 - 44,200 since June 9. The index ended higher for the second day in a row but failed to scale the mark of 44,000 yet again. The index though, did take support at its erstwhile cushion of 43,700 on the downside on Wednesday.

Kunal Shah of LKP Securities sees immediate support for the Nifty Bank index at 43,500, while 44,000 has now become a crucial upside barrier, as evident from the failure of the index to surpass those levels over the last two sessions. "A break on either side of this range is expected to result in trending moves. Within the range, it is advisable to adopt a buy-on-dip approach," he said.

On the other hand, Ashwin Ramani of SAMCO Securities said that the Nifty Bank is in a no-trade zone, as long as it remains in that range of 43,400 - 44,050. "A decisive breakout on either side of the range will provide cues about further direction," he said.

India's largest private lender, HDFC Bank, a key constituent on the Nifty 50 and the Nifty Bank index gained for the fourth day in a row. The stock also was the top contributor points-wise to the Nifty 50 and Nifty Bank upside. It ended on Wednesday at the highest level since May 30. Goldman Sachs reiterated its buy rating on the stock and gave a price target of Rs 2,050. You can read more on this here.

"As of now, from a technical point of view, HDFC Bank looks pretty good. Minimum target for the short term, when I say short term, I mean, say one to three months kind of time Rs 1,700 to 1,720 can be envisaged for HDFC Bank. So it's a buy, HDFC Bank if one is buying for the longer term, there is absolutely no problem. You can keep it in your portfolio, it is one of the best blue chips available," Rajat Bose of rajatkbose.com said.

What Are The F&O Cues Indicating?

Nifty 50's June futures shed 5.1 percent or 4.92 lakh shares in Open Interest on Wednesday. Futures are now trading at a premium of 39.9 points from 48 points earlier. Shedding was also seen in the Nifty Bank futures, and they shed 1.7 percent or 39,275 shares in Open Interest. Nifty 50's put-call ratio is now at 1.18 from 1.16 on Tuesday.

India Cements and Indiabulls Housing Finance are out of the F&O ban list from today's session. PNB is the new addition into the ban list. BHEL, Delta Corp, Hindustan Aeronautics, Hindustan Copper and L&T Finance Holdings continue to remain in the F&O ban period.

Nifty 50 on Call side for June 22 expiry:

For today's expiry, Open Interest addition on the call strikes has been seen at higher levels between 18,900 and 19,100, thereby creating new hurdles for the index at record highs.

Nifty 50 on Put side for June 22 expiry:

The 18,800 strike on the put side has seen the maximum Open Interest addition for today's expiry, which may indicate that the bulls may want to defend this level for today's session. Lower strikes like 18,400 have also seen Open Interest addition.

Let us take a look at the stocks that added fresh long positions on Wednesday, meaning an increase in price and Open Interest:

Let us take a look at the stocks that saw short covering on Wednesday, meaning an increase in price but decrease in Open Interest:

Some stocks also saw unwinding of long positions on Wednesday, which means a decrease in both price as well as Open Interest:

Here are the stocks to watch out for in Thursday's session:

TCS: Expands strategic partnership with Nest to provide enhanced member experience. Total contract value for an initial tenure of 10 years will be 840 million pounds. In case the deal lasts its entire duration of 18 years, the total contact value would be 1.5 billion pounds.

Delhivery: Bloomberg reported that Carlyle plans to offload 1.84 crore shares or 2.5 percent of the total equity for $86 million. Floor price has been set as Rs 385.5, which is almost the same as Wednesday's closing price.

Sansera Engineering: Client Ebene Ltd. and CVCIGP II Employee Ebene Ltd. plan to offload 14.1 percent of the total equity or 74.53 lakh shares worth Rs 627.5 crore at a preice band between Rs 799.85 to Rs 841.95 per share. The seller will have a 90-day lock-up post the transaction.

Allcargo Logistics: LCL volumes for May down 5 percent from last year, while FCL volume in May down 11 percent year-on-year.

Shriram Finance: Blackrock, BNP Paribas Arbitrage, New World Fund, Societe Generale among key buyers in the block deal in which Piramal Enterprises sold its entire stake. Stock ended higher by 11 percent on Wednesday.

NTPC: To consider raising Rs 12,000 crore via NCDs at its board meeting on June 24.

What Are Global Cues Indicating?

Most Asian equities have opened higher despite Fed Chair Jerome Powell saying that Fed rate hikes in the fight against inflation has a long way to go. The Nikkei 225 index has opened 0.2 percent higher, while the Topix is up 0.6 percent. South Korea's Kospi and Kosdaq are up 0.2 percent each.

Markets in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are shut on account of a holiday.

US equities fell overnight after Jerome Powell's statement. The Dow Jones fell 100 points, S&P 500 declined 0.5 percent, while the Nasdaq fell 1.2 percent, the most in two weeks.

The Singapore (SGX) Nifty futures which are an early indicator of how trade is likely to begin in India are currently trading 31 points or 0.16 percent lower at 18,878, thereby pointing to a subdued start during the weekly options expiry session.

Both foreign and domestic investors were buyers in the cash market on Wednesday. One must keep in mind that the numbers are heavily influenced by the Shriram Finance block deal, along with multiple other block deals that took place on Wednesday.

Shrikant Chouhan of Kotak Securities believes that 18,780 is a key level to watch now for the traders. He still sees the index moving towards levels of 18,900 - 18,950. "However, a quick short-term correction is not ruled out if the index trades below 18,780 and slips till 18,720-18,700,” he said.

The Nifty 50 is making multiple attempts to cross the record high but is failing due to lack of strength at those levels, said Nagaraj Shetti of HDFC Securities. He expects a decisive move above 18,900 to open the doors for a move towards levels of 19,100 and 19.200 in the near-term. Immediate support for the Nifty 50 is at 18,730.

First Published:Jun 21, 2023 10:28 PM IST