Indian stock markets are closed on Friday for the Christmas holiday. It’s a long weekend for the stock markets. Trading will resume on Monday. The week has been an eventful and volatile one for traders as investors were concerned about the new strain of the covid-19 virus found in the UK. Nifty 50 ended the week flat after opening down and recovering towards the end of the week. The index fell by around 4% on Monday, though it started recovering by mid of Tuesday. The index ended at 13,749.
The markets made the longest stretch of weekly gains at least since 2018.
Also Read | The global drive to reimagine capitalism
“Monthly expiry has also contributed to the higher volatility. Nifty’s closing near the previous week high indicates strong rollovers on the back of healthy FII flows seen this month. IT stocks have again come into limelight because of the large mega deals announced by Infosys and Wipro this week. Some of the old economy stocks from oil & gas, automobile and metals & mining have come under selling pressure this week,” says Rusmik Oza, Executive Vice President, Head of Fundamental Research at Kotak Securities.
Global markets were supportive with South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Taiwan’s Topix index gained 0.5-2%. Markets in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore closed early for Christmas Eve.
Analysts expect a better opening on Monday.
“Institutional participation will be lower in the coming week due to year end and Christmas considerations. Nifty has closed almost at the intraday and intraweek high raising hopes of a better opening on Monday. However it could run into profit taking later in the week,” says Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.
This week has seen moderation in flows from both FIIs and DIIs. Rusmik Oza expects muted FII activity in the next week also due to year end phenomenon but expects activity to pick up sharply from the first week of January.
He says, “most probably Nifty should take support at 13,000 levels with likely break out above the 14,000 level sometime in January.”
