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Indian stock markets stumbled on Thursday's monthly expiry, showing that the upward trend is still facing significant pressure. The possibility of higher gains seems to be on hold as we head into the last trading day of the week. This is a challenging period for traders.

Against this backdrop, market expert Raja Venkatraman has released his top stock recommendations for investors seeking opportunities today, 28 August. His analysis provides a clear roadmap for navigating the current market landscape with confidence.

Markets witnessed a second straight session of profit booking on 28 August, with benchmark indices falling nearly 1% following the implementation of 50% US tariffs on India. The Nifty slipped below 24,500 intraday, extending Tuesday’s decline, while the Sensex closed 705.97 points lower at 80,080.57.

The Nifty ended down 211.15 points at 24,500.90. Broader indices mirrored the weakness, with the BSE midcap and small cap indices shedding 1% and 0.9%, respectively.

Despite a weak start, the Nifty briefly rebounded before selling pressure in heavyweight sectors dragged it to the day’s low. IT, realty, and banking stocks led the decline, while consumer durables saw selective buying. Top Nifty losers included Shriram Finance, HCL Tech, TCS, Power Grid, and Infosys. Gains were led by Titan, L&T, Coal India, Asian Paints, and Hero MotoCorp. The monthly expiry added to volatility, reinforcing the ongoing corrective phase in the market.

Moving to the charts we note that the trends have been largely oriented towards trading rather than investing. After testing the gap support region, the market opened to a negative start and the drop on Thursday was quite steep. Hence , from a trading perspective we can note that on the Daily charts the prices are trading below the cloud as well as TS & KS line. Also , the constant sell at every rise could prove to be a threatening blow to the sentiment. The successive negative candles seen in the Daily chart of Nifty in the August series does not bode well for the market.

The trend that is emerging clearly suggests that the rally seen last week was a holding the resistance zone and the gap up opening ensured that the prices traded above the range area that developed in the last few days. Hence , one should track the trends that are in progress as the fall below 24350 (Nifty Spot) could accentuate the fall further. Momentums on hourly charts are indicating that the prices after settling down seems to have witnessed a resumption of selling pressure. With the sharp decline emerging from higher levels, we can expect the rally if any to remain a supply.

We had said, “For undertaking shorts, we need to see Nifty move below 24500 for a potential drop towards 24200 and 24050 as per the Open Interest data a sharp fall is expected once key resistance levels break."

The markets are once again at this crucial juncture on the Nifty expiry as it has closed below the Max Pain at 24600, we are entering the September series with a bearish bias.

If we witness a 30-minute range breakdown on Friday we can consider trading on either side as the trends still remain tentative where we expect some resistances to kick in. As bearish market trends are in play, we need to be quick in profit taking as we the trend does not have sufficient steam to move strongly in either direction.

At this juncture we have to pay attention to Trump's tariffs that have dampened investor sentiment, and domestic economic challenges that shall contributed to the sharp market decline and volatility in the rupee.

Raja Venkatraman is co-founder, NeoTrader. His Sebi-registered research analyst registration no. is INH000016223.

Investments in securities are subject to market risks. Read all the related documents carefully before investing. Registration granted by Sebi and certification from NISM in no way guarantees performance of the intermediary or provide any assurance of returns to investors.

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations given in this article are those of individual analysts. These do not represent the views of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.

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