Sensex, Nifty turn flat post early gains; YES Bank shares plunge 13%, TechM soars 9%

Bulls made a short-lived comeback at Dalal Street on Monday amid the mixed cues from the global markets. Asian stocks were undecisive during the early trading hours, whereas US stocks settled sharply lower on Friday. Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) continued to weigh on the markets, despite the US Federal Reserve's efforts to boost the morale of stakeholders. Traders will be keenly looking at the Fed's policy meeting outcome this week and its commentary along with a rate hike path. At 9.30 am, the 30-share pack BSE Sensex was trading 261.86 points, or 0.44 per cent, higher at 59,396.99, whereas NSE's Nifty50 gained 81.45 points, or 0.47 per cent, at 17,494.35. However, benchmark indices gave up their entire gains. Broader markets underperformed the headline peers as the BSE midcap index was flat, whereas the BSE Smallcap index was trading in red. India VIX was up by 2 per cent to 13.69-level. "We remain a bit hopeful and expect important levels to remain unbroken in this week; especially after seeing prices showing resilience around the 200-SMA and forming a key technical pattern known as Bullish Hammer," said Sameet Chavan, Chief Analyst-Technical and Derivatives, Angel One It would however be very early to jump to any conclusion and considering the recent volatility, traders should ideally wait for the trend to establish. On the flip side, the bearish gap left around 17,570-17,600 should be considered an immediate hurdle. Traders should ideally prefer staying light on positions and keep accumulating quality propositions in a staggered manner, he said. Sector-wise Nifty Auto, Nifty Media and Nifty Private Bank Indices were trading lower. Among the gainers, the Nifty Metal index jumped over a per cent, followed by Nifty IT index. Financial Services PSU Bank and FMCG indices also posted decent gains. Among the Adani Group stocks, Adani Enterprises jumped 3 per cent, while Adani Ports turned negative. Adani Power, Adani Total Gas, Adani Transmission, Adani Wilmar and Adani Green Energy jumped up to 5 per cent each. However, Ambuja Cements, ACC and NDTV were trading flat. The SVB issue is unlikely to rattle markets for long. The quick joint statement by the US Treasury, the Fed and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that all the depositor's money will be safe is enough to calm the markets, said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services. "However, investors have to be careful since there can be a sentimental impact on banking stocks. Since this crisis has near zero impact on Indian banking, investors with a higher risk appetite can use the weakness in the market to buy high quality bank stocks. A possible positive impact of the SVB crisis is that it may nudge the Fed to go less hawkish since the aggressive rate hike by the Fed lies at the root of the SVB crisis," he said. Tech Mahindra led the gainers in the Nifty50 pack. The IT major surged about 9 per cent as it appointed Mohit Joshi as its next CEO and MD. Apollo Hospitalsand JSW Steel jumped 2 per cent each. Buying was seen in Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank. Among the losers, IndusInd Bank plunged 5 per cent even as the lender received the approval for the re-appointment of Sumant Kathpalia as managing director and chief executive officer for another two years. Tata Motors, Hero Motocorp and Titan were among other key laggards. In the broader markets, Yes Bank plunged 13 per cent at open as the mandatory lock-in of three years for its shares ended on Monday. Mahindra CIE Automotive and Sona BLW Precisions were also down sharply over the bulk deal buzz.