25/02/26, PostMarket REPORT

 Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty significantly fell from day's highs on February 25 amid massive profit booking and closed marginally higher.

Sensex closed 50.15 points or 0.06% higher at 82,276.07, and the Nifty climbed 57.85 points or 0.23% at 25,482.50. About 1,966 shares advanced, 2,064 shares declined, and 161 shares were unchanged. Sensex fell nearly 700 points from day's high while Nifty ended below the psychologically important 25,500-mark. Sensex touched intraday high of 82,957.91 while that of Nifty was 25,652.6.

Bajaj Auto rose nearly 3% and was the top gainer in the 50-stock index. Shares of Tata Steel, HCL Technologies, and Shriram Finance rose over 2% each and were the other top gainers. Information technology shares stayed higher. Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra were around 1% higher each. Shares of automobile companies Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki India, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, and Eicher Motors rose around 1-2%.

In contrast, ITC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Tata Consumer Products were the worst hit stocks. They were down over 1% each. Shares of Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, UltraTech Cement, and Oil and Natural Gas Corp. declined. These select stocks were down around 1% each.

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services was the top performing stock in the Nifty 200 index. It was up nearly 5%. Shares of Hero MotoCorp, National Aluminium Corp., and Vedanta rose over 4% to be among the top gainers in the index. In the Nifty 500 index, Concord Biotech rose 13% to be the top gaining stock.

Waaree Energies, Premier Energies, and Indian Railway Finance continued to be the worst hit stocks in both the Nifty 200 and Nifty 500 indices. These stocks were down 4-11%.

Three reasons behind market decline:

1. Profit booking

Profit booking was seen in the markets after they rallied nearly 0.9% in morning trade on February 25.

"Amid ongoing global uncertainty and heightened volatility, traders are advised to maintain a disciplined and selective approach, focusing on fundamentally strong stocks during corrective phases. Fresh long positions should preferably be initiated only after a decisive and sustained breakout above 25,800 on the Nifty, which would indicate improved market sentiment and confirm the emergence of a stronger bullish structure," said Hitesh Tailor, Research Analyst, Choice Equity Broking Private Limited.

Bank Nifty fell 0.7% from day's high while Nifty IT fell 1% from intraday high of over 2%.

2. FII selling resumes

FII selling resumed on February 24 with institutional activity on February 24 showing Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) as net sellers, with equity outflows of Rs 102 crore, whereas Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) provided strong market support through net purchases of ₹3,161 crore.

3. Technical level

Nifty failing to rise above 25,670 could be a reason for sell on rise being seen in markets.

"We will look for consistent trades above 25.670 to confirm strength, aiming 25.900 initially. But, inability to float above 25530 could signal lack of upside momentum," said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited.

"We are of the view that the intraday market texture is weak, but a fresh selloff is possible only after the market breaches the 200-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) or 25,300/82,000. If the market manages to trade above this level, it could bounce back to 25,500-25,650/82,500-82,800. Conversely, if it falls below 25,300/82,000, it could slip to 25,150-25,050/81,400-81,200. The current market texture is volatile; hence, level-based trading would be the ideal strategy for day traders," said Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities.

Report by J. Jagannath of Network18