Hi Diksha, what exactly is your trading view for 17th August? Is the Sensex and Nifty headed still higher?

It was back to the commodity stocks with Tata Steel taking the markets. It was the top gainer and just does not appear to stop. Along the way, it was supported by Bajaj Finance and Britannia, even as auto stocks came under pressure on Monday. Overall, the advance decline ratio remained slightly unfavourable for the markets.

The slightly disappointing story was on the IPO front. For example, out of the 4 IPOs to list, 3 disappointed, with Windlass closing at a discount of 11% to issue price. Devyani International, which was the best performed in an uneventful day, gave up most of its gains on opening and closed 37% above its IPO price. Most stocks closed near their lows.

Foreign investors sold Rs.1,088 crore of equities on 16 Aug, with heavy selling coming on listed IPOs. Domestic institutions bought Rs.506 crore of equities. In global markets, the Dow and NASDAQ were flat while Europe came under pressure. FOMC minutes is the big uncertain factor. SGX Nifty is trading lower by 20-25 bps in early trades.

It is tough to say if the markets will go higher but if you look at the call accumulation, it does give an upper limit indication of up to 16,800. That is another 250 points higher and with the support of short covering, we should do a lot better on the indices. However, the response to the IPOs will remain the big question mark.