What is your market view for Tuesday the 15-February and do you see the sell-off continuing?

Yes, it was a virtual carnage on the stock markets on Monday, 14 February as the benchmark Nifty lost over 500 points and the Sensex lost more than 1,700 points. This was triggered by the worsening tensions between Ukraine and Russia. There was also the fear of a series of aggressive rate hikes by the US Fed in the next few months of 2022.

On Wednesday, the advance decline ratio stood at 1:49 with damage across metal stocks and financials. The volatility index surged by 23% in a single day to touch a level of 22.98 on Monday as the Ukrainian situation fuelled panic in the equity markets causing the volatility to spike sharply.

Foreign investors sold equities worth Rs.4,254 crore on 14-Feb while domestic funds and LIC bought Rs.2,170 crore of stocks. Dow closed with losses of -172 points while NASDAQ was flat on Monday. Things were worse in early trades, but hopes of amicable settlement in Ukraine raised hopes. Europe was down but SGX Nifty is 60 bps up in early trades.

For Tuesday, the sentiments are still likely to be clouded by the overdoes of global risk including Ukrainian situation and the likely hawkish tone in the Fed minutes. With the results season almost done in India, the focus will shift to the momentum indicators in the market. The markets is likely to face pressure at every bounce for now.