Week Ahead

Bears mauled the markets down to the levels last seen in June with the benchmarks shedding around 2.5 percent in the week ended October 27 on the back of escalating unrest in West Asia, unabated selling by foreign institutional investors in India, rising US bond yields, and lacklustre corporate earnings.

The BSE Sensex tanked 1,615 points during the week to settle at 63,783, and the Nifty 50 plunged 495 points to 19,047 as all sectors were in the bear zone. The Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 indices were down 3 percent and 2 percent.

In the short-term, market sentiment remains cautious, with investors closely monitoring developments in the West Asia, upcoming corporate earnings, and key economic data.

Corporate earnings will be the biggest market determinant next week, too, as nearly 700 companies are likely to release their results, including prominent ones like State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, Sun Pharmaceutical, Hero MotoCorp, Titan Company, UPL, Tata Consumer Products, Adani Enterprises, and Britannia Industries, which have around 17 percent weightage in the Nifty50.

Technically speaking Bearish Tweezer Top kind of candlestick pattern formation in previous week, followed by long bearish candlestick pattern with lower shadow on the weekly charts last week still indicates the bears may remain in the leading position, with critical support at 18,800 (the last week's low) as breaking of the same can drag it down to 18,600-18,500 levels, whereas 19,200-19,300 may act as a crucial hurdle on the higher side, followed by 19,500.

The Options data indicates that 19,200 is expected to be key immediate resistance, followed by 19,500-19,600, whereas on the lower side, 19,000-18,800 will be broad support area for the Nifty50 in coming days.