Stock market today: Vaishali Parekh of Prabhudas Lilladher believes the Indian stock market may have a flat opening today as the Gift Nifty is oscillating around its previous day's close.(Photo: Courtesy Prabhudas Lilladher)AI Quick ReadBuy or sell stocks, 29 April 2026: Witnessing a highly volatile session, the key benchmark indices of the Indian stock market finished lower on Friday, the monthly derivatives expiry day. The Nifty 50 index went off 97 points and closed at 23,995. The BSE Sensex lost 416 points and ended at 76,886. The Bank Nifty index crashed 863 points or 1.54% and finished at 55,400.
Sectorally, the trend remained mixed—energy, metals, and select pharma stocks lent support, while banking, auto, and financials faced notable pressure. Broader markets showed resilience, with midcap and smallcap indices advancing nearly half a per cent each, indicating selective participation.
The Gift Nifty live index is trading flat since early morning deals. The index opened lower at 24,075 and made an intraday low of 24,072 within a few minutes. However, the index bounced back, reaching an intraday high of 24,128.
Vaishali Parekh, Vice President — Technical Research at Prabhudas Lilladher, believes the Indian stock market sentiment is cautious but expects a flat opening on Wednesday, as the Gift Nifty index is signalling a flat-to-positive opening.
Speaking on the outlook of the Nifty 50 today, Vaishali Parekh said, the index witnessed a volatile session, finding resistance near the 24,200 zone and slipping down with profit booking seen to end near the 24,000 level with no clarity visible for a convincing directional move, with bias and sentiment once again maintained with a cautious approach.
“The Nifty 50 index is hovering below the important 50-EMA zone at the 24,200 level, and the important hurdle of 24,300 needs to be breached decisively in the coming sessions to establish conviction and improve the bias overall. The index would have the important support zones at 23,500 and 23200 levels, which need to be sustained,” she added.
On the outlook of the Bank Nifty today, Vaishali Parekh said the index witnessed a weak session, breaching below the important support of the 55,800 zone with heavy profit booking, dragging the index down to close near the 55,400 level with bias weakening once again and would have the next support near the 54,400 level with bias turning into cautious mode.
Regarding stocks to buy today, Vaishali Parekh recommended these three buy-or-sell stocks: Bharti Airtel, Vascon Engineers, and Olectra Greentech.
1] Bharti Airtel: Buy at ₹1835, Target ₹1860, Stop Loss ₹1820;
2] Vascon Engineers: Buy at ₹39.50, Target ₹42, Stop Loss ₹39; and
3] Olectra Greentech: Buy at ₹1275, Target ₹1320, Stop Loss ₹1260.
Disclaimer: This story is for educational purposes only. The views and recommendations above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, not Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.
Asit Manohar has nearly two decades of experience in the mainstream media. In this period, he has served esteemed media organisations like NDTV Profit, The Economic Times, and Zee Business. He has been working at LiveMint Digital since April 2021. During these two decades of journey in mainstream media, Asit has mainly covered external affairs, markets and personal finance. However, his earliest beats include railways, SME, MSME, and politics (Congress beat). Some of his features on political, economic, and foreign policy are documented in the parliamentary records.
While pursuing his MA (Mass Communication, Session 2004-06), Asit began his media career as a stringer at All India Radio in Varanasi. At AIR Varanasi, Asit worked with the Gyanvani, Yuvvani and Vividh Bharti teams. After working for nearly one year at AIR Varanasi, he shifted to print journalism and started working as a stringer for the HT Media Ltd, Varanasi. At HT Media Ltd in Varanasi, he covered the BHU beat.
Asit has also worked with some brokerage houses. He has worked with Religare Broking and India Infoline, where he assisted the research team in developing and executing trade strategies for intraday cash, F&O, and commodities.
Asit is a Gold Medalist in MA (Mass Communication) from BHU, Varanasi. He did his BSc. (Hons) in Mathematics from Magadh University, Bodh Gaya. Asit was a National Talent Scholarship holder during his senior secondary studies (1988-91).