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Ahead of Market: 10 things that will decide stock market action on Friday

Ahead of Market: 10 things that will decide stock market action on Friday
  • PublishedAugust 20, 2026


The Indian stock market rebounded on Thursday, with the Sensex and Nifty closing sharply higher, snapping a seven-day losing streak as falling US bond yields, short-covering and other factors boosted market sentiment.

Sensex jumped over 628 points to close at around 77,538, while Nifty 50 gained around 154 points to end the session at 24,232. Broader markets also moved into the deep green, with Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 gaining up to 0.7%

Here’s how analysts read the market pulse

“Markets found much-needed relief after the U.S. Treasury stepped in to contain the surge in global bond yields, triggering a strong broad-based rebound and ending the domestic market’s week-long losing streak. The intervention has dragged down the dollar, which, along with a firmer rupee and easing yield pressures, boosted attractiveness to EMs. The recovery was widespread across sectors, driven primarily by strength in IT and financial stocks, as a cooling yield environment supports spending. Yet, the market’s optimism remains guarded as stubbornly high crude oil prices, driven by unresolved U.S.-Iran tensions, continue to cast a shadow over inflation and corporate profitability. The near-term outlook is likely to hinge on the direction of global yields, energy prices and geopolitical developments, with sustained stability needed to keep earnings momentum and foreign inflows intact,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments.

Also read | Explained: How a JP Morgan unit and a Mumbai-based stock broking firm allegedly manipulated Sensex during CAS
US stocks
The main U.S. stock indexes fell on Thursday as rebounding government bond yields hurt sentiment, while retail bellwether Walmart saw sharp declines after a quarterly sales miss.
Walmart lost 8.6% after missing Wall Street expectations for quarterly comparable sales as shoppers pulled back on spending in the face of rising gas prices. It dragged on the S&P 500 consumer staples index, ‌the biggest sectoral loser, ⁠which was ⁠down 1.6%.

European markets

European shares inched lower on Thursday as higher oil prices fuelled supply and inflation concerns linked to the Middle East war, while a recovery in global bonds after a U.S. Treasury intervention helped ‌limit losses.

The pan-European ⁠STOXX ⁠600 was marginally down at 650.89 points.

Tech view

“The Nifty 50 index staged a recovery after finding support at a critical level. In fact, the Nifty closed meaningfully higher than the previous close for the first time in the last thirteen sessions. On the daily timeframe, the index has reclaimed the 50EMA, indicating an improvement in the short-term trend. The hourly RSI is in a bullish crossover. Overall, the short-term sentiment looks positive, and the Nifty is expected to move towards higher levels. On the higher end, resistance is seen at 24,350/24,500, while on the lower end, support is placed at 24,150,” said Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities.

Most active stocks in terms of turnover

Balrampur Chini (Rs 2,470 crore), Netweb Technologies (Rs 2,385 crore), BSE (Rs 1,804 crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 1,278 crore), MCX (Rs 1,211 crore), Eternal (Rs 1,199 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 1,183 crore) were among the most active stocks on NSE in value terms. Higher activity in a counter in value terms can help identify the counters with the highest trading turnovers in the day.

Most active stocks in volume terms

Vodafone Idea (Traded shares: 23.21 crore), Groww (Traded shares: 4.95 crore), Zee Entertainment Enterprises (Traded shares: 4.56 crore), MMTC (Traded shares: 4.24 crore), Eternal (Traded shares: 3.67 crore), Meesho (Traded shares: 3.4 crore), and Yes Bank (Traded shares: 3.58 crore) were among the most actively traded stocks in volume terms on NSE.

Stocks showing buying interest

Balrampur Chini, Netweb Technologies, MMTC, Brigade Enterprises, Suven Pharma, Meesho and HBL Power were among the stocks that witnessed strong buying interest from market participants.

52-week high

Among the ones which hit their 52-week highs on NSE included Balrampur Chini, Netweb Technologies, ACME Solar Holdings, Welspun India, Sai Life Sciences, RBL Bank and Lenskart Solutions.

Stocks seeing selling pressure

Stocks which witnessed significant selling pressure were Himadri Speciality, Aster DM Health, Chennai Petro, Syrma SGS Technologies, Authum Investment, PFC and REC.

52-week low

Among the ones which hit their 52-week lows on NSE included Sun TV, IRCTC, Aditya Birla Lifestyle, KEC International and ITC.

Sentiment meter favours bulls

Out of the 3,632 stocks that traded on the NSE on August 20, Thursday, 2,108 stocks witnessed advances, 1,405 saw declines while 119 stocks remained unchanged.

Also read | IT crash ahead? CLSA downgrades TCS, Infosys, Wipro, other stocks; revises target prices. Here’s why

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)



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