Welcome to the final day of this week, 21st March Daily Byte. What a week it has been, beyond what most expected at every level. People thought the market would stall and go down, but it hasn’t, at least not so far. And that’s the beauty of the markets — it will surprise you all the time.

Where is the market headed?

Market Overview

f I may say so, they are on fire. In the last five sessions, we’ve moved from nearly 22,300 to 23,350 — more than a thousand points gained in just one week. We haven’t seen a week like this in many years. To put it simply, it’s been a fantastic move.

While it’s still difficult to definitively say whether we’ve reached the bottom, as we need to cross a major pivotal point to say that with some confidence, there are positive signs. If the market continues to make higher lows, that will confirm the trend is changing. But so far, it’s been a great move — no complaints at all.

The Nifty gained 0.7% for the day, and this chart posted by Stable Investor on X clearly shows how the Nifty has performed over the past months. October was down by 6%, November saw losses, December was negative, January was down, and February also ended in the red. But now, March is the positive month. Having five consecutive months of declines is rare, and six consecutive months down, I believe, hasn’t happened in the last 20-30 years. So, March was always expected to be green, and right now, it looks like it will stay that way. We still have a few more sessions before the end of the month, but hopefully, March ends on a positive note. After that, we’ll see what happens in the next quarter. It will also depend on the 2nd of April, when the tariff business starts again, and the results for this quarter begin to trickle in.

Nifty Next 50

The Nifty Junior is up 0.88%, showing a very nice move from the bottom.

Nifty Mid and Small Cap

Mid-caps are also on fire, up by 1.34%, and small-caps have surged by 2.14%. All indices are doing very well.

Nifty Bank Overview

The Bank Nifty is up 1.06%, now coming close to challenging the February top. Just think about what has happened in the last few sessions. The thought process of waiting for new lows to deploy capital has now shifted to a sense of FOMO — the fear of having missed the bottom. This is how the mind continuously plays games. That’s why having a systematic approach is crucial, not only when picking stocks or deciding when to exit but also when deciding how to bring money into the market. It should all be a part of a systematic strategy.

GOLD

Gold is down by 0.82%, and you can see that as soon as the Indian markets started to improve, gold in rupee terms started coming off. This is also because the USD/INR has cooled off from nearly 88 to around 86 rupees.

Advance Decline Ratio

The market breadth for 21st March is reasonably green, with 396 advances and 104 declines. This entire week has been largely green, and that has been a good trend.

Heat Maps

Some of the top Nifty stocks performing well include ICICI Bank, ONGC, Tata Motors, NTPC, L&T, Sun Pharma, Nestle, Bajaj Finance, SBI Life, and Kotak Bank. All of these stocks have been doing really well, adding a nice green tinge to the entire heat map. The Nifty Next 50 is also looking good, with BHEL, Chola Finance, Gas Authority, NHPC, Adani Green, TVS Motors, Pidilite, and PNB all performing well. There have been some sporadic small losses, but no major casualties for the day.

Sectoral Overview

Sector trends are mostly green, with capital markets roaring up by 3.3% for the day and 13.9% for the week. The capital market sector’s losses for the month are almost gone now. The only sector still in loss territory is IT, down by 9% for the month. But for the day and week, everything is looking good. Metals had a slightly negative day today, but things are coming back. Over the last three months, only three or four sectors are significantly down, while the rest are pretty much in single digits, either up or down.

Sectors of the Day

Nifty Capital Markets Index

Stocks in the capital markets, including UTI Asset Management, BSE, Novama, Kfin, CDSL, and Angel One, have been roaring higher. This signals that the capital market segment is leading the rally upwards.

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