Stock market today: Infosys, Asian Paints take lead during early trade, realty tumbles over 1% in morning trade on 19th July

Both indices, Nifty and Sensex opened the day in red. As of 9:30 am, Nifty was down by 0.21%, trading at 24,749.75 while Sensex inched to 81,318.21 points, down by 0.03%.

All broad market indices opened in red, except for India VIX, which inched up by 1.08% during early trade. A similar bloodbath was seen in sectoral indices, with the only exception of IT, which inched up by 1.27%. Nifty realty and metal were down by over 1% each during early trade.

Infosys, Asian Paints, TCS, ITC and HCL Tech took lead during early morning trade, while Hindalco, BPCL, Power Grid, UltraTech Cement and ONGC were amongst the leading laggards. Notably, Infosys declared its Q1FY25 results yesterday, where it saw its net profits jump by 7% on YoY basis to touch Rs 6,368 crore. The company's revenue from operations during the quarter was also up by 3.6% YoY, up to Rs 39,315 crore.

Aether India, Bluedart, ICICI Lombard, JSW Steel, Mahindra EPC, Wipro, NAM India and Ultratech are set to declare their Q1FY25 results later in the day.

As Aditya Gaggar, Director of Progressive Shares notes, "IT counters-led rally propelled the index to end the session at another record level of 24,801. By engulfing the previous candle, the Index has formed a big green candle which implies a strong comeback of bulls. The psychological level of 25,000 will be considered an immediate hurdle while 24,500 will serve as strong support on the lower side".

" For the past couple of days/weeks, we have been recommending FMCG and IT (LTIM and TCS) counters, and the index rally was mainly driven by them only which boosted our confidence to remain bullish on both sectors with a buy-on-dips approach for fresh entry (if already invested then hold). Some NBFC stocks have given a strong breakout namely Bajaj Finserv, Chola Finance, and Shriram Finance", he continued.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities highlights that or trend-following traders, 24,500/80,400 would act as a crucial support zone. "However, 24,700-24,600/81,000-80,700 can serve as immediate support. Above 24,850/81,600, the market may continue its positive momentum towards 24,950-25,000/81,900-82,000. Per him, the strategy should be to buy around support levels and reduce long positions at resistance levels.