Market this week: Sensex slips 0.3%, Nifty holds above 15,800; Nifty IT outperforms

Bajaj Finserv, Wipro, Asian Paints, BPCL and Nestle India were the top Nifty gainers.

IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, HDFC Life Insurance and Hindalco  Industries were the top Nifty losers.

"This entire week the index remained quite volatile and tested the crucial support of 15,650 to bounce quickly. BankNifty index also found cushion at 34,300 levels. Market breadth shows bullish signs but trading volumes are drying up," said Nirai Shah, Head of Equity Research, Samco Securities.

Shah believes the outlook remains bullish as long as the Nifty trades above 15,600 levels and any break below the said support will signal weakness in the short term.

"Traders should be extremely cautious with their moves while investors should sit tight on their quality portfolio," Shah said.

In Friday’s session, Indian indices closed higher led by gains in banking and financial stocks. The Sensex climbed 138 points to end at 52,975 and Nifty settled 32 points higher at 15,856. However, the broader markets underperformed and market breadth favours declines.

Among sectors, while Nifty Auto and Media declined, Realty and Bank closed a percent higher each.

On the stateside, S&P 500 was set to end the week higher.  The pan-European index, STOXX 60 is also set for a weekly rise of 1.2 percent, according to a Reuters report.

Over in Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares, sans Japan, slipped nearly 1.5 percent this week.

Analysts expect the volatility to continue as investors become uncertain about the direction of the global economy due to the resurgence of the Delta variant.