Trade Setup for October 24: Nifty faces hurdles at higher levels but uptrend intact

After opening with an upside gap of 189 points, the Nifty made an early attempt to move higher. However, the market hit a roadblock around the 26,100 mark, and intraday weakness set in from the mid to later part of the session.

The Nifty completely erased its morning gains as index heavyweights slipped from their opening highs. Nevertheless, the short-term trend remains strong.

After a roaring start to the new Samvat, the Nifty slipped more than 200 points from the day's high of 26,104, as investors booked profits at higher levels. The index ended the session near the day's low at 25,891.

The rally was initially fueled by strong global cues and optimism around a potential India-US trade agreement.

Among Nifty constituents, IT heavyweights such as Infosys, HCL Tech, and TCS emerged as the day's top performers, lending crucial support to the index. On the other hand, Eicher Motors, Indigo, and Ultratech Cement came under pressure and ended as the session's laggards.

Sectoral performance was a mixed bag. IT, Private Bank, and Media indices ended in the green, while Oil & Gas, Healthcare, and Pharma were the biggest losers.

The broader markets mirrored the benchmark's late-session reversal, with both the Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 indices ending slightly lower, down 0.05%.

On Friday, key macroeconomic data points to watch include the US CPI for September 2025 and the Manufacturing and Services PMI figures from both India and the US.

On the earnings front, investors will closely track results from SBI Life Insurance, SBI Card, Dr. Reddy's, Aditya Birla AMC, ITC Hotels, and Coforge, among others.

Foreign institutional investors have remained net buyers for the last five sessions, infusing a cumulative ₹2,262 crore into Indian equities.

Overall, positive global cues, renewed foreign inflows, and better-than-expected quarterly earnings could help sustain the market's upward momentum, though intermittent profit booking at higher levels cannot be ruled out, said Siddhartha Khemka of Motilal Oswal.

Nagaraj Shetti of HDFC Securities said that the near-term trend of the Nifty remains positive. Any confirmation of a negative reversal could trigger a short-term correction, which may be viewed as a buy-on-dips opportunity.

Shetti added that immediate support is placed at 25,700, while a decisive move above 26,100 could open the next upside towards 26,300-26,400 in the near term.

LKP Securities' Rupak De echoed a similar view, saying the short-term trend remains intact, with potential to revisit higher levels around 26,200 over the next 10-15 days. Immediate resistance is seen at 26,000, above which the index could move towards 26,200.

Osho Krishan of Angel One said the benchmark index has seen a remarkable 1,000-point rally in just six sessions. Hence, the possibility of profit booking cannot be ruled out. However, any minor correction should be viewed as healthy and an opportunity to add long positions.

Krishan added that the runaway gap around 25,800-25,750 is expected to cushion any upcoming blips, while sacrosanct support lies near 25,600-25,500. On the upside, the intermediate high of 26,100-26,150 could act as a near-term hurdle, followed by the lifetime high zone of 26,277.