Stock market today: Sensex inches up over 700 points, Nifty rises over 1% in early trade on August 8th, 2024

Sensex and Nifty opened the day in green, with Sensex trading at 79,357.43, up by over 750 points, and Nifty up by 1.02% to trade at 24,237.50 points as of 9:40 am on August 7th, 2024.

ONGC, Coal India, Hero Moto Corp, Mahindra and Mahindra and Infosys gained early edge in today's trade, while Asian Paint, Titan and Kotak Bank were amongst the top losers in early trade.

Mostly all broad market indices, including small cap and mid cap indices, jumped over 1%, with the exception of India VIX, which slipped 8.88% during trade today. Amidst sectoral indices, oil and gas inched up over 2%, while auto, IT, FMCG, metal, pharma, realty, media, financial services and healthcare gained over 1% each in trade today.

Aditya Gaggar, director of Progressive Shares, noted that "realty counters are likely to remain in the limelight as FM has made a few amendments to the policy. With a hidden bullish divergence in the RSI, the IT sector has formed a bullish candle around its pattern breakout point suggesting a resumption of its uptrend. Metal sector stands at its long-term trendline support; bounce can be expected but it will be short-lived. Stock-specific buying can be anticipated from the defensive segments i.e. the FMCG and pharma.

"A lot of Textile stocks have given a strong move in yesterday's trade, one should opt for buy on a dips strategy and we have coverage on some stocks namely BASML, Cantabil, Nahar Spinning, and Welspun Living", he said.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities explains that based on the short-term market structure, the trend-setting levels are 23,900/78,290. If the market falls below this, it may decline to 23,700 or 23,600/78,000-77,800, where it has support from retracements and long-term averages. It's advisable to consider selective buying around this level.

"On the upside, the major resistance levels are 24,150/79,000 and 24,400/79,900. It's recommended that weak, long positions be reduced to around 24,300/24,400. If the market moves sharply above 24,400/79,900 levels it may compel short sellers to cover short sell positions", he continued.