10 things that will decide D-St action on Thursday

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Key points

• While Nifty 50 dropped almost 77 points to end the session at 24, 078 on Wednesday, sensex lost around 326points to close below 76, 910.
• Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Cost, Axis Bank Share Rate, HDFC Bank Share Cost, Infosys Share Rate, Wipro Share Cost, NTPC Share Rate.
• Ahead of Market: 10 things that will decide stock market action on Thursday.
• Vaccine-maker Moderna's shares more than doubled after its personalized mRNA cancer therapy developed with Merck cut the risk of melanoma recurrence and spread in a late-stage trial.
• Power shift, a déjà vu: Air India could be new CEO's toughest flight yet.

Ahead of Market: 10 things that will decide stock market action on Thursday. ETMarkets.comLast Updated: Aug 19, 2026, 09: 16: 00 PM IST.

Indian equities extended losses for a seventh session as rising oil rates and US-Iran tensions heightened risk aversion. While Sensex declined 326 points, nifty fell to 24, 078. Analysts flagged 24, 000-24, 050 as crucial backing, with fragile breadth favouring bears.

Notably, the Indian stock market continued to bleed on Wednesday, with Nifty extending losses for the seventh consecutive session as oil rates inched higher after Trump maintained the US is not engaged in any peace discussions with Iran. While Nifty 50 dropped almost 77 points to end the session at 24, 078 on Wednesday, sensex lost around 326points to close below 76, 910. Broader markets additionally continued to record losses, with Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices falling up to 0.5%.

As investors remained concerned that the Federal Reserve's battle against inflation may continue, remarked Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Investments, here's how analysts read the market pulse Markets turned cautious ahead of the release of the US FOMC minutes. He continued that the lack of a diplomatic resolution after the end of the US-Iran ceasefire kept crude oil rates and bond yields elevated, strengthening risk-off sentiment. Though IT stocks outperformed on value buying and backing from a weaker rupee, "Reflecting weakness throughout Asian markets, Indian equities saw broad-based selling. As the Q1FY27 earnings season draws to a close, corporate results have generally exceeded expectations, reinforcing confidence in earnings resilience. Nevertheless, with temporary market tailwinds fading, the next phase of market performance will depend largely on the stability of crude oil supply chains, " the analyst further stated. Live Events.

US stocks The main U.S. Stock indexes recovered on Wednesday after a technology-driven slump in the previous session as administration bond yields retreated from multi-decade highs and investors assessed a slew of corporate updates. Vaccine-maker Moderna's shares more than doubled after its personalized mRNA cancer therapy developed with Merck cut the risk of melanoma recurrence and spread in a late-stage trial. Marvell Technologies surged regarding 9% after the chipmaker issued Alphabet's Google a warrant to purchase a stake worth regarding $12.18 billion. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond retreated from its highest ⁠level since 2007 ‌after the U.S. Treasury confirmed it would double the size of liquidity backing buyback operations for longer-dated bonds, boosting risk appetite. It was last at 5.209%. As oil rates remained elevated on the back of Middle East tensions, supporting energy stocks but raising questions over inflation and expansion, while investors awaited U.S, european markets European shares hovered around a two-week low on Wednesday. Federal Reserve's July session minutes. Meanwhile, a selloff in euro ‌zone administration bonds, ⁠which ⁠had pushed long-dated yields to their highest levels in more than a decade on Tuesday, paused as the U.S. Treasury market stabilised. Long-end sovereign yields act as an anchor for the cost of almost every other asset in financial markets, including mortgage rates. The pan-European STOXX 600 was flat at 651.51 points. Tech view "The Nifty discovered backing at the lower band of the rising channel. Besides, the index filled a gap on the daily timeframe. The 61.80% Fibonacci retracement level additionally coincided with these backing levels, where the index created a low. Immediate backing is placed at 24, 000-24, 050; if this zone holds, the Nifty might stage a meaningful recovery. By contrast, if the Nifty fails to sustain above 24, 000, significant bearishness could growth, dragging the index towards much lower levels. Therefore, long positions should be held with a strict stop-loss at 24, 000, " remarked Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities. Most active stocks in terms of turnover Aster DM Health (Rs 5, 725 crore), Himadri Speciality (Rs 2, 441 crore), BSE (Rs 1, 599 crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 1, 535 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 1, 441 crore), Bharti Airtel (Rs 1, 206 crore) and Netweb Technologies (Rs 985 crore) were among the most active stocks on NSE in value terms. Higher activity in a counter in value terms can support identify the counters with the highest trading turnovers in the day. Most active stocks in volume terms Vodafone Idea (Traded shares: 32.07 crore), Aster DM Health (Traded shares: 7.4 crore), IFCI (Traded shares: 6.38 crore), Yes Bank (Traded shares: 4.95 crore), Suzlon Energy (Traded shares: 4.73 crore), Himadri Speciality (Traded shares: 3.31 crore), and JP Power (Traded shares: 3.09 crore) were among the most actively traded stocks in volume terms on NSE. Stocks showing buying interest GSK Pharma, ICICI Prudential AMC, Kaynes Technology, Cyient, RR Kabel, Nippon Life AMC and Elgi Equipments were among the stocks that witnessed solid buying interest from market participants. 52-week high Among the ones which hit their 52-week highs on NSE included GSK Pharma, R R Kabel, Elgi Equipments, Welspun Corp, Schloss Bangalore, Chennai Petro and PNB Housing. Stocks seeing selling pressure Stocks which witnessed significant selling pressure were Netweb Technologies, CESC, Ami Organics, ITD Cementation, Bata India, HEG and ABB Power. 52-week low Among the ones which hit their 52-week lows on NSE included Brainbees Solutions, Aditya Birla Lifestyle, Whirlpool India, KEC International, ITC, IRFC and IndiaMart. Sentiment meter favours bears Out of the 3, 609 stocks that traded on the NSE on August 19, Wednesday, 1, 320 stocks witnessed advances, 2, 171 saw declines while 118 stocks remained unchanged. (Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times).

Nifty 50SensexIndian stock marketcrude oil pricesUS Iran tensionsFOMC minutesNifty supportmarket breadthIndian equities.

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Taken together, the developments around 10 things that will decide D point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.