The long-short ratio of foreign portfolio investors (or FPIs') Nifty futures bets fell to 35.4% on Friday, from about 56% a week ago. The long-short ratio in index futures is a measure of the number of bullish positions versus bearish. A low reading means foreign investors are bearish. The reading was 12.4% on February 28, 2020, when concerns over the spread of Covid had erupted.

​ US Markets are in oversold territory, and European indices have taken support near crucial moving averages, which mean a meaningful recovery can be expected from global equity markets.

HUL dropped 20% from July 2023 highs, near oversold levels. Experts suggest buying with stop loss at 2050 for 2400-2500 target. Stock at support zone, anticipating higher bottom formation.

India's benchmark indices bucked the global weakness to end higher on Friday, boosted by HDFC Bank, although the gains were not enough to prevent their first weekly loss in five on worries over the Middle East conflict and U.S. rates. The S&P BSE Sensex closed 0.83% higher at 73,088, while the NSE Nifty50 index ended above the 22,100 level."The short-term trend of Nifty seems to have reversed up after forming a bullish reversal type candle pattern on Friday. One may expect further upside towards the next resistance of around 22500 levels in the few sessions. Immediate support is around 22000 levels," said Nagaraj Shetti, Senior Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities.Here are 5 stock recommendations for Monday:

March was a month where mid-cap were beaten down badly. April till now has shaped up better. Now this flip flop of performance has led to a situation where there is a high probability of investors getting confused about what they should do at this point of time, should one avoid mid-cap space or increase exposure. While it should always be the principle, in times of lack of clarity, buying quality stocks should be basic principles which should guide one's decision. Especially when one is buying mid-cap stocks. The reason, when valuations are not cheap then small corrections in broader can lead to strong negative reaction in stock prices. Now how does one do it? Look at the underlying business which is best understood by going through its annual report and look at a certain basic ratio in order to figure out how much return that underlying business can generate in best and worst case.

This week is packed with notable corporate actions. Aegis Logistics, Aster DM Healthcare, and ICICI Securities are set to go ex-dividend, while IIFL Finance and Sobhagya Mercantile have their rights issue ex-date scheduled.

While they come under the broad umbrella word of “Chemical sector” the fact is that it has three broad segments. Speciality chemical, Performance chemical or Commodity chemical. Each with its own operating matrix of supply chain and demand and also the valuations are different for each of them. In the last ten years, each of these segments have been going through a different cycle. But there is one common thread in all these segments, that is China. One news from China regarding whether it has started producing more of a chemical or there has been a shut down in any plant. The actual chemical prices and the stock price of the companies, both see wild swings. While it would be wrong to say that this will go away, over the long term there is a possibility that some segment in the chemical space will be able to delink and become less sensitive as more backward integration happens in that space. We look at the 5 stocks, where analysts have “hold” recommendations as the street waits for underlying changes to take shape.

Stocks like Motilal Oswal, Nippon Life, and D-Mart showcased strong performance, aiming for specific resistance levels. Positive market closure with sectoral variations observed.

A short buildup is when there is a rise in open interest and volumes along with a decrease in the price of the underlying stock in the Futures and Options segment. Short buildup means more people are expecting the prices to go down and creating short positions. In Friday’s trading session, five stocks witnessed a build of fresh short positions. Here's the list:

Last Thursday, when everything appeared fine, there was a sudden decline in the Nifty, a drop of more than 200 points in less than 5 mins. There was never and never will be, dearth of explanation of every move of the markets. So, the blame this time was put on basket selling and possible attack by Israel on Iran. Explanations aside, volatility is part of the market and will remain. The only two things one should do, look at how the market breadth has panned out during the volatile phase. Second, stocks, which may be volatile in the short term but the companies are good when it comes to fundamentals. During this volatile phase, it was large cap and more particularly index stocks which led the down move. The fact is that the first phase of volatility is always led by large caps as they have high institutional holdings. But over the long term, they tend to outperform and the drawdown is lower as compared to mid and small caps. So, at times large caps might optically appear to be hammered and that may be an opportunity to look at some stocks with a long term perspective.

A long buildup occurs when there is an increase in open interest and trading volumes alongside a rise in the price of the underlying stock in the Futures and Options segment, indicating a bullish trend in the market. In Friday's trading session, five stocks experienced a buildup of fresh long positions. Here's the list:

Despite the short-term volatility, smallcap stocks have delivered superior returns over the long term. For investors with a long-term investment horizon, such stocks in India have shown periods of strong outperformance.

Here's a look at stocks that will trade ex-dividend in the coming week (April 22-26). (Source: StockEdge)

​ Foreign investors dumped domestic equities worth over Rs 5,200 crore in April so far on concerns over tweaks in India's tax treaty with Mauritius, which would now impose higher scrutiny on investments made here via the island nation.

The past week saw block deals across large, mid and smallcap companies. Among these, 15 were largecap stocks including companies like Zomato, Jio Financial and Infosys. Nuvama reports a detailed list of these deals.

​The combined market valuation of six of the top 10 valued firms eroded by Rs 1,40,478.38 crore in a holiday-shortened week, with IT majors Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys taking the maximum hit.

India's FY25 potential performance relies on FII ownership and Domestic market strength. Inclusion in Bloomberg, Reuters' emerging market debt index enhances appeal. Growth expected in the capital goods sector.

With the Iran-Israel conflict dominating headlines, Nifty broke a four-week-long winning streak to end the holiday-shortened week 1.65% lower.

​With Wipro and Infosys’ results out this week, the fourth quarter earnings season will now pick up pace as the upcoming week will witness the results for Axis Bank, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, Tata Elxsi, along with 167 other companies.

NSE International Exchange (NSE IX) has received US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) class relief, allowing US clients to participate in trading Equity Index Option Contracts on the bourse, according to a statement.

Last Thursday, when everything appeared fine, there was a sudden decline in the Nifty, a drop of more than 200 points in less than 5 mins. There was never and never will be, dearth of explanation of every move of the markets. So, the blame this time was put on basket selling and possible attack by Israel on Iran. Explanations aside, volatility is part of the market and will remain. The only two things one should do, look at how the market breadth has panned out during the volatile phase. Second, stocks, which may be volatile in the short term but the companies are good when it comes to fundamentals. During this volatile phase, it was large cap and more particularly index stocks which led the down move. The fact is that the first phase of volatility is always led by large caps as they have high institutional holdings. But over the long term, they tend to outperform and the drawdown is lower as compared to mid and small caps. So, at times large caps might optically appear to be hammered and that may be an opportunity to look at some stocks with a long term perspective.

Nirmal Bang initiates coverage on HFFC and Aavas Financiers, foreseeing growth opportunities. HFFC has 30.5% upside, Aavas 14%. AHFCs positioned for growth despite challenges. India's housing market shows potential for affordable housing finance sector.

The private sector lender said the record date for determining the eligibility of members entitled to receive dividend on equity shares is Friday, May 10, 2024.

It is not easy to quantify how much impact it will have in the short term, but the fact that the two of the world largest commodity exchanges, London Metal Exchange (LME) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) have banned any metal of Russian origin produced after 13th April, have a higher probability of pushing up the metal prices higher after some time. Now this comes on the back of Chinese GDP numbers which were better than expected. If one looks at the trend in metal prices, they are incher higher. If the revival of the Chinese economy gets further momentum than probably two years old, the bearish phase of metal prices might be over. What does this mean for the Indian metal companies, probably another round of higher profits given the fact that their balance sheets are in much better shape as compared to 5 years back.

Higher US Treasury yields and the rupee slipping to record lows have led to some position unwinding by foreign investors, who have sold nearly $1.3 billion of government bonds in April.

According to ace investor James Montier, many investors tend to believe that behavioural biases only affect others, leading them to overlook their own blind spot bias.

With the Q4 earnings season picking up pace, the companies are also rewarding their shareholders with dividends for the financial year 2024. As many as 5 companies have announced dividends for their shareholders this week.A host of companies like Infosys, Bajaj Auto, Jio Financial and Wipro, among others, announced their quarterly results in the past week. Out of these, a total of 5 companies have announced dividends for their shareholders.Here’s a list:

In March 2024, mutual funds' active schemes reduced their exposure to public sector undertakings (PSUs) slightly. This reduction was mainly due to selling in companies like SBI, NTPC, Power Finance, NHPC, and PNB. However, a report from Elara Capital indicates that overall exposure to PSUs in mutual funds at around 12% is still below the long-term target range of 15-16%.Elara Capital lists 10 PSU stocks that observed the highest selling by MFs:

Brent crude and US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) traded above $90 and $85 per barrel, respectively in Asian trade on Friday. This price surge followed unconfirmed reports of explosions in Iran, Syria, and Iraq, igniting concerns about a potential escalation of the Middle East crisis.As crude oil prices are rising, some stocks will benefit from it. According to StockEdge data, here is a list of counters that will benefit from rising crude oil prices:

According to domestic brokerage firm Axis Securities, Vedanta, IOC, and Tech Mahindra are among the top 10 largecap companies that have offered the highest dividend yield in the last one year:

Brokerages adjust Infosys' share targets post revenue cut. Stock at ₹1,411.95, target post Q4: ₹1,582.12 (12% upside). Analysts note slow discretionary demand despite sector bottoming out, Infosys' attractive valuation.

Given the declining trajectory of local inflation - particularly core inflation - it is unlikely that the Reserve Bank of India would turn to rate hikes after maintaining a status quo on rates for more than a year. What the rise in swap rates show more than anything else is heightened risk aversion and the damage done to rate cut expectations by the abrupt ratcheting up of tensions in the Middle East.

Tesla, Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Microsoft - all set to report next week - are part of the group of companies that had been dubbed the Magnificent Seven as they led the S&P 500 to a 24% gain last year.

India's stock indices rose post volatile trading due to traders covering bearish bets on Israel-Iran conflict hopes. Rupee strengthened on likely RBI dollar sales, while gold surged. NSE's Nifty closed higher.

Moschip Technologies was the top gainer in the smallcap pack with a 35% return, followed by Solara Active Pharma (34%), Dhani Services (27%), and Likhitha Infrastructure (25%).

Netflix slumped as one of the bigger drags on the benchmark S&P index and Nasdaq after the video streaming company's second-quarter revenue view fell short of analysts' expectations while the company also unexpectedly said it would no longer provide subscriber counts.

The S&P 500 index closed down 0.9%, dropping for the sixth straight session and the third straight week, leaving it more than 5% below its March 28 closing high. The Nasdaq 100 declined 2.1%, and recorded the deepest weekly drop since November 2022.

In FY 2024/25, India may sell a 10% stake in GIC for about Rs 57 billion. LIC plans to offload 10% over 7 years and 25% over 10 years post its successful IPO.

Nasdaq and S&P 500 declined due to Netflix's weak forecast. Chicago Fed President mentioned stalled inflation progress. J.P. Morgan's Manoukian noted strong growth. American Express outperformed. Iranian city attack affected markets.

Sebi's proposal for a special call-auction mechanism aims to address liquidity issues and improve fair price discovery in Investment Companies and Investment Holding Companies with significant market price-book value gaps.

Wipro’s revenue from operations in the reporting period declined 4% YoY to Rs 22,208 crore, compared with Rs 23,190 crore in the corresponding period of last year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 26.60 points, or 0.07%, at the open to 37,801.98.

Netflix added new customers in the first quarter, but its second-quarter revenue forecast missed market expectations of $9.54 billion late on Thursday. It also decided not to report subscriber additions and average revenue per member from the first quarter of 2025.

Under the proposal, a vertical demerger of Madura Fashion and Lifestyle business will be executed and newly incorporated company named as Aditya Birla Lifestyle Brands Ltd will be listed separately on completion of the demerger from ABFRL. ABFRL plans to raise Rs 2,500 crore equity capital within 12 months of demerger with promoter participation.

The psychological mark of 22,000 holds intermediate support, followed by strong support of the 21,800-21,700 subzone. On the higher end, the 20-DEMA placed at 22,300, followed by a bearish gap of 22,430-22,500, is likely to act as a daunting task in the near period and an authoritative breakthrough could only re-strengthen the lost momentum to the bulls of D-Street, said Osho Krishan of Angel One.

Long unwinding refers to selling of positions or stocks owned for a longer period either to book profit or to exit it in anticipation of impending bearishness. In Friday's trading session, five stocks witnessed a top long unwinding. Here's the list:

As per the latest corporate shareholdings filed, Sunil Singhania publicly holds 25 stocks with a net worth of over Rs 2,777 crore. Here's a look at stocks wherein he cut stakes in the last quarter. (Source: Trendlyne)

Short covering refers to the buying of shares in order to close an existing short position or a position that has been sold. Short covering signals a shift in view on a security from extreme bearishness to bullishness. In Friday's trading session, five stocks saw top short covering. Here's the list:

Kedia brought his stake to 1% in Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India in the previous quarter. Kedia may have exited the stock in Q3 or brought his stake below 1%. He held 1.02% of the company as of September 30, 2023.

India's biggest FPO by Vodafone Idea opened for subscription on Thursday. The company is looking to raise Rs 18,000 crore from investors as it eyes a fresh infusion of money. The FPO will run till April 22 and is priced at Rs 10-11 per share. But the main question is - Should you participate in Vi's cash hunt? Watch