Stock market today: Trade setup for Nifty 50 to US Fed meeting outcome; 5 stocks to buy or sell on Thursday — Dec 19

Stock market today: The domestic equity indices Nifty 50 and Sensex continued their losses for the third straight day as investors' offloading of utility and capital goods and metal stocks is weighing heavily on the market amid foreign fund outflows. This week, the indices lost over two percent, with the outflows resulting in Nifty 50 closing below its 50-day moving average for the second consecutive session on Wednesday.

As per the stock market news, the BSE Sensex benchmark - a collection of 30 stocks tumbled by 502.25 points, obtaining a percentage of 0.62, hence closing at 80,182.20 as the downward trend continued for the third day. At some point during the day, it went down to 80,050.07, shedding a massive 634.38 points or 0.78 percent. On December 18, the index of NSE Nifty 50 was at 24,198.85 after a downslide of 137.15 points or 0.56 percent.

Trade setup for Thursday

The selling pressure in Nifty50 during the day led to a close below 24,200. ‘The sentiment is weak and could worsen if Nifty50 continues below 24,200. In the short term, a drop below this range may lead to a correction towards 23,850. 24,400 will be the resistance on the upside, said Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities.

On the daily chart, Bank Nifty has created a large red candle, indicating weakness, and has broken the support of 52,500 along with the previous week's low of 52,265. The level of 52,500 will act as a strong resistance for the index in the near term.

"The index will now get strong support near 51,680, where the 100-day exponential moving average (100-DEMA) is lying. Unless the index moves above 52,500, the bounce should be used for booking profits," said Hrishikesh Yedve, AVP Technical and Derivatives Research, Asit C. Mehta Investment Intermediates Ltd.

For the third time in a row, the panel that determines federal funds rates, led by US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, has reduced the rate. It started the policy easing cycle in September after four years without it. Now, the new member projections have forecast two rate reductions for 2025.

Stocks to buy today

Here are two stock recommendations today from Sumeet Bagadia, Executive Director at Choice Broking, E.I.D Parry India Ltd, and Deep Industries Ltd.

The Senior Manager of Technical Research at Anand Rathi, Ganesh Dongre has recommended three stocks, Godrej Industries Ltd., Varun Beverages Ltd., and Amber Enterprises India Ltd.