CONSOLIDATION CONTINUES; 8730-8580 IS THE RANGE

CONSOLIDATION CONTINUES; 8730-8580 IS THE RANGE

WORLD MARKETS                             

US indices, pressured by fall in oil and healthcare stocks, dipped 0.4%-0.8% yesterday.

Healthcare stocks fell sharply after Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton tweeted about the recent price hikes on EpiPens, auto-injectors that can stop life-threatening emergencies caused by allergic reactions.

US oil fell 2.8% to $46.77 a barrel and Brent was off 1.8% at $49.05 after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude inventories rose 2.5 million barrels in the previous week, surpassing expectations for a drawdown of 500,000 barrels.

US existing home sales for July fell 3.2%, more than expected.

Dollar index edged up to 94.77 from 94.55. Gold fell $16 to $1330 an ounce.

European markets, except a half a percent lower FTSE, added 0.3%-0.9%.

AT HOME

Benchmark indices ended higher by about a fifth of a percent after a choppy session, extending the winning streak to second straight day ahead of the expiry of the August derivative series. Sensex added 70 points to settle at 28060 while Nifty finished at 8650, up 18 points. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices rose 0.6% each. BSE Oil & Gas and Healthcare indices were the top gainers among the sectoral indices, rising 1.5% and 1.3% respectively while Telecom and Metal indices were the top losers, down 0.3% and 0.2% respectively.

FIIs net sold stocks and index futures worth Rs 39 cr and 255 cr respectively but net bought stock futures worth Rs 372 cr. DIIs were net buyers ot the tune of Rs 129 cr.

Rupee depreciated 5 paise to end at 67.11/$.

OUTLOOK

Today morning Asian markets are trading flat to modestly lower and SGX Nifty is suggesting about 10 points higher start for our market.

Nifty, after bouncing back from the vicinity of the 34-DMA support on Tuesday, added some more gains yesterday to end at 8650.

8700-8730, as we have been mentioning, continues to be the hurdle area on the way up, a decisive crossover of which is required for this four week old consolidation to get over and resumption of the next leg of upmove .

8580, the bottom made Tuesday, is now the immediate support, a breach of which will mark the breakdown from this consolidation and would pave the way for the further correction.