Stock market today: Vaishali Parekh believes the Indian stock market may have a muted debut today as the Gift Nifty is trading flat in the early morning session.(Photo: Courtesy Prabhudas Lilladher)Buy or sell stocks on 17 April 2026: The Indian stock market saw a volatile session on Thursday, ending flat as the index took a breather after the recent rebound. The Nifty 50 index went off 34 points and closed at 24,196. The BSE Sensex lost 122 points and finished at 77,988. The Bank Nifty index finished 215 points lower at 56,086.
Sectorally, the trend remained mixed—metals, IT, and energy stocks supported the index, while banking and auto stocks witnessed some pressure. Broader markets continued to outperform, with midcap and smallcap indices gaining around 0.6–1%, reflecting sustained positive market breadth.
The Gift Nifty live chart is trading flat and signalling a muted opening for the Indian stock market. The Index is trading red at around 24,150.
Vaishali Parekh, Vice President — Technical Research at Prabhudas Lilladher, believes the Indian stock market bias is cautiously positive as the Nifty 50 index is facing a hurdle at 24,300. The Prabhudas Lilladher expert believes the 50-stock index needs to close above 24,300 to strengthen the bulls' conviction in the fresh uptrend. She said that Gift Nifty index is trading flat and intraday traders may expect a muted opening for the Indian stock market today.
Speaking on the outlook of the Nifty 50 today, Vaishali Parekh said the index opened with a gap up near the 24,400 zone but fizzled out, finding resistance and slipping down as the day progressed, with profit booking seen and closed near the 24,200 zone with bias and sentiment maintained with a cautiously positive approach as of now.
“The Nifty 50 index would have the 24,300 zone as the important hurdle which needs to be breached decisively further to establish conviction in the coming days. On the downside, the near-term support would be positioned near the 23,800 level while the next major support would be near 23,200 as per the gap theory,” said Parekh.
On the outlook of the Bank Nifty today, Parekh said the index once again opened near the 56,800 zone, where it found resistance and, with heavy profit booking, slipped down to close near the 56,000 zone with bias maintained with a cautious approach and would need to breach above the 57,000 zone decisively to establish conviction in the coming days.
“The Bank Nifty index would need to sustain the 53,500-level, which is positioned as the important support zone to maintain the bias intact,” Parekh added.
Regarding stocks to buy today, Vaishali Parekh recommended these three intraday stocks to buy or sell for intraday trading: MGL, NCC, and SJVN.
1] MGL: Buy at ₹1091, Target ₹1130, Stop Loss ₹1070;
2] NCC: Buy at ₹160, Target ₹168, Stop Loss ₹156.50; and
3] SJVN: Buy at ₹76.30, Target ₹80, Stop Loss ₹75.
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).