Nifty smartly recovers to end flat, holds 5500; ONGC lead

Indian equities closed the last session of January on a flat note with a negative bias after a sharp sell-off, which was seen since Tuesday last week. The Nifty moved back above the 5500-mark in late trade on the back of short covering that aided a smart recovery today.

Traders might have felt that the markets were oversold, and so may have stepped in to buy largecaps at lower levels. The indices saw a correction of more than 12-13% from the highs.

Inflation worries had spooked the markets last week and today concerns over Egypt pulled the markets down. Breaking psychological levels was also another reason that led to the sell-off in markets.

The 50-share NSE Nifty settled at 5505.9, down just 6.25 points, after hitting an intraday low of 5,416.65.

Lalit Thakkar, MD-Institution, Angel Broking says, the Nifty may bottom out at 5,350-5,400 level. He feels that interest will come back from the retail investors.

Trader Atul Suri sees support for the Nifty at the 5,300 level; an important support level for the market. He believes the current downturn is only a corrective phase as there is a crisis of confidence in markets now.