Sensex gains 159 points as Fed holds rates, traders eye 73,500 expiry hurdle
India's Sensex opened 159 points, or 0.2%, higher at 73,405.47 on Thursday and the Nifty 50 added 46 points to 22,745.1, as traders weighed a Federal Reserve decision to hold interest rates against crude prices that show no sign of easing and continued foreign fund outflows.
The Fed kept policy rates unchanged on Wednesday and said inflation remained elevated, sticking to a data-dependent stance. V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments, called the decision mildly positive for global equities but said India still faces external pressure, pointing to a 10-year US bond yield hovering near 5% and crude prices that are not easing.
With the monthly expiry in view, the levels that matter are tightly bunched. Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research at Kotak Neo, put support at 73,000 and 72,500 and the immediate hurdle at 73,500. A move above it could carry the index to 73,800–74,000, he said, while a fall below 72,500 could weaken sentiment and drag it to 72,100 or 71,700.
Sachin Gupta, vice-president of technical research at Choice Equity Broking, placed immediate support at 72,600–73,000 and resistance at 73,500–73,800, describing the broader range as a sideways market structure. Options data backs those levels: the 73,000 put carries the heaviest writing, the 73,500 call the highest open interest, and a put-call ratio of 1.23 leans towards the put side.
The takeaway for expiry is that the Sensex needs to hold above 73,500–73,800 to signal a stronger recovery; until then it is likely to stay range-bound, with 72,600–73,000 the line that decides whether selling deepens. Vijayakumar also flagged a report that the chip shortage will persist to 2030, reviving interest in chip stocks and the AI trade in South Korea and Taiwan. The views cited are those of the analysts and broking firms named.
