The Indian equity markets witnessed profit booking on Thursday after a huge surge over the last two trading sessions. A 300-point drop after hitting an intraday high of 24,503.35 may not have pleased the Nifty bulls, who are now positioning themselves for the outcome from the US Federal Reserve’s policy decision.

The Nifty 50 concluded near 24,200, shedding over 1.10% from its last closure, while Sensex fell 836 points to settle at 79,542. Midcaps relatively outperformed, with the Midcap index falling 0.5% as against a decline of 1% for Nifty.

Shares of Hindalco Ltd., the Aditya Birla Group company, were the top losers on the Nifty 50 index today. The bigger factor that resulted in the fall in the stock price was the fact that Novelis withdrew its short-term EBITDA per tonne guidance of $525. Novelis attributed the suspension of guidance to tight scrap spreads due to accelerated scrap purchases by China.

The Street will react to the FOMC interest rate decision on Friday. Traders have about fully priced in a 25-basis point rate cut, but will keep a close watch on the central bank’s policy statement for any clues on the future path of monetary easing.

Earnings reactions will be seen from Lupin, NCC, Emami, Lupin, Cochin Shipyard, NHPC, Steel Authority of India, Ircon International that reported results after market hours on Thursday.

Stocks like State Bank of India, Tata Motors, MRF, Ashok Leyland, Equitas Small Finance Bank, CE Info Systems, Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar, India Cements, INOX India, Dreamfolks Services, among others will be reporting results on November 8.

Foreign institutions continued to remain net sellers in the cash market on Thursday, while domestic institutions were net buyers yet again.

What do the charts suggest for Dalal Street?

Despite a strong overnight performance in the US markets following Donald Trump’s presidential win, Nifty maintained a bearish tone, dipping early and holding that sentiment throughout the session, said Ajit Mishra of Religare Broking.

On the index front, Mishra said that Nifty was unable to breach the 24,500 resistance once again, suggesting that consolidation may continue, with key support at 24,000.

According to Osho Krishan of Angel One, the latest price movements illustrate the underlying sentiment as markets did not demonstrate sustained buying after the momentum observed in the previous two sessions and retracted into the slumber zone.

From a technical standpoint, Krishan expects 24000 to be as intermediate support and might cushion any intraday blips, followed by the sacrosanct support of 23900-23800 in the comparable period. “On the higher end, 24400-24500 remains a daunting task for the bulls, and until a sustainable breach takes place, we might witness a continuation in the sideways movement for Nifty.”

Rupak De of LKP Securities said that the Nifty 50 index has slipped sharply as it failed to move beyond the 21 EMA, leading to significant profit booking in the market. On the daily chart, a bearish engulfing pattern has formed, indicating weak market sentiment. This sentiment, De said, may worsen if the Nifty decisively sustains below 24,200. On the higher end, the 24,500-24,550 range may act as resistance.

“Immediate downside risk on Nifty is placed at 23816 mark; aggressive downside targets are at Nifty’s 200 DMA at 23496 mark,” said Prashanth Tapse of Mehta Equities.

Nifty Bank dips 401 points

Meanwhile, the Nifty Bank index opened on a negative note, saw profit booking, and settled the day 401 points lower at 51,917. Technically, the index is consolidating in the band of 50,400 to 52,580 since last one week.

“The index has formed higher lows but unable to cross the barrier of 52,580. On the downside, index is respecting 150-Days exponential moving average (DEMA), which is placed near 50,540 levels. If the index sustains above 52,580, then only fresh upmove could be possible, otherwise, the index will continue its consolidation,” said Hrishikesh Yedve, AVP Technical and Derivatives Research at Asit C. Mehta Investment Interrmediates.

Bank Nifty saw correction in first hour of session on back of selling in largecap private sector banks but on the lower side, the index found support at around 51750-51800 levels and saw minor pullback from those levels. Overall structure for Bank Nifty is positive and dips towards 51700-51500 can be used as buying opportunity for targets of 52350-52600, said Aditya Agarwal of Sanctum Wealth.

These are the stocks to watch out for ahead of Friday’s trading session:

– NHPC: Net profit down 41% from last year’s to ₹909 crore. Revenue up 4% from last year’s to ₹3,052 crore. EBITDA up 1.7% from last year’s to ₹1,799 crore, while margin stood at 58.9%.

– SAIL: Net profit down 31% from last year’s to ₹897 crore. Revenue down 17% from last year’s to ₹24,675 crore. EBITDA down 24.8% from last year’s to ₹2,912.8 crore, while margin stood at 11.8%.

– Lupin: Net profit up 74.4% from last year’s to ₹852.6 crore. Revenue up 12.6% from last year’s to ₹5,672.7 crore. EBITDA up 46% from last year’s to ₹1,340 crore, while margin stood at 23.6%.

– Ircon: Net profit down 17.8% from last year’s to ₹206 crore. Revenue down 19.3% from last year’s to ₹2,447.5 crore. EBITDA down 23.3% from last year’s to ₹201 crore, while margin stood at 8.2%.

– ITD Cementation: Net profit rises 34% from last year’s to ₹72 crore. Revenue rose 23.6% from last year’s to ₹1,991 crore. EBITDA up 15% from last year’s to ₹181.7 crore, while margin stood at 9.1%.

– NCC: Net profit rises from last year’s to ₹174.8 crore. Revenue rose 10% from last year’s to ₹5,196 crore. EBITDA up 45.8% from last year’s to ₹443 crore, while margin stood at 8.5%.

– Emami: Net profit up 19% from last year’s to ₹212.7 crore. Revenue up 3% from last year’s to ₹890.6 crore. EBITDA up 7% from last year’s to ₹234 crore. Margin stood at 28%.

– India Metals: Net profit up 40% from last year’s to ₹125 crore. Revenue flat at ₹692 crore. EBITDA up 13.4% from last year’s to ₹171 crore, while margin stood at 24.6%.

– Astral: Net profit down 17.5% from last year’s to ₹108.7 crore. Revenue up 0.5% from last year’s to ₹1,370 crore. EBITDA down 4.5% from last year’s to ₹210 crore, while margin stood at 15.3%.