The Nifty 50 index has gained 400 points in the last two trading sessions. The surge over the last two days ensured that the index managed to save itself from breaking a 20-year record - that of four straight negative months.

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Friday's close was the highest for the Nifty 50 since March 8. For financial year 2023, the index ended flat. 40 percent of the Nifty 50's 280-point surge on Friday came from Reliance Industries (72.7 points) and ICICI Bank (42.4 points).

This week will be an even more truncated one as the market will remain shut on Tuesday and Friday for holidays.

For today's session, the market will see reaction to auto sales numbers that were reported over the weekend and quarterly business updates from lenders which have been reported and some that will be reported as the week goes by.

Naveen Kulkarni of Axis Securities believes that even as the market has rallied a fair bit recently, it is likely to remain volatile in the near-term as the banking crisis in the US and Europe has not completely stabilized. "This is against the backdrop where bond yields in the US have also risen in the past week, which could further escalate banking issues there," he said.

Kulkarni's cautious stance was also echoed by Aditya Suresh of Macquarie. "We still think that from an earnings perspective, there are cuts to work through, domestic flows, and foreign flows, still not as supportive," he said.

Despite India being a relative underperformer to the global markets at the start of the year, the valuations are looking much more reasonable compared to the start of the year, according to Julius Baer's Rupen Rajguru. He expects the Nifty 50 to trade in the 17,000 - 20,000 band for 2023.

What do the charts suggest for Dalal Street?

Nagaraj Shetti of HDFC Securities expects the Nifty 50 to move towards its previous swing high of 17,800 in the next few weeks. Support levels have also moved higher from 16,800 - 16,900 to 17,250. He observed a long bull candle being formed on the weekly chart of the Nifty 50, and a double bottom around 16,900, which is a positive sign for the market.

A decisive move beyond the bearish gap of 17,450 - 17,580 would affirm a decisive trend reversal in the market, noted Osho Krishnan of Angel One. He advocates utilising any dips to add long positions on the index. "We expect strong moves in the broader market, so one needs to have a stock-centric approach for better trading opportunities," he said.

The Nifty Bank index has sustained above a key resistance level of 40,000. It closed at its highest level since March 10. The index has gained nearly 1,300 points during the last four trading sessions. The breakout confirms the positive momentum and one should keep a buy approach with an immediate support at 40,200, said Kunal Shah of LKP Securities.

Here are key things to know about the market ahead of the trading session on April 03:

SGX Nifty

On Monday, Singapore Exchange (SGX) Nifty futures — an early indicator of the Nifty 50 index — gained 63 points to 17,480.5 or 0.36 percent, thereby pointing to a positive opening for the market.

Global Markets

US markets capped a volatile week and quarter that included more rate hikes and some financial panic as well, with more gains.

The Dow Jones gained over 400 points on Friday, ending the quarter flat. The Nasdaq advanced 16 percent between January-March, marking its best quarter since 2020. The S&P 500 also gained 1.4 percent on Friday, to end the quarter 7 percent higher.

What to expect on Dalal Street

The Nifty 50's daily chart is trading in a falling channel pattern and is currently facing resistance near the upper band of the pattern, noted Rohan Patil of SAMCO Securities. However, he expects only a sustained close above levels of 17,500 to trigger further upside to the March 6 high of 17,799.

Rupak De of LKP Securities observed the Nifty 50's momentum oscillator RSI having entered a bullish crossover. He expects the trend to remain strong as long as the index remains above 17,200. He cites next important levels on the upside to be 17,500 - 17,600.

Key Levels To Track

For the weekly options expiry on April 6, the 17,600 strike call of the Nifty 50 index added 33.7 lakh shares in Open Interest. The 17,000 call added 29.55 lakh shares in Open Interest. Open Interest addition was also seen in the 17,500 call (25.48 lakh shares) and the 17,700 call (28.4 lakh shares).

On the downside, the 17,300 put added 59.2 lakh shares in Open Interest, followed by the 17,200 put (53.9 lakh shares) and the 17,250 put (38 lakh shares).

Nifty 50's put-call ratio has moved further higher to 1.3 from 1.05 on Wednesday. No stocks are currently in the F&O ban.

FII/DII activity

Long Build-Up (Increase In Price and Open Interest)

Short Build-Up (Decrease In Price and Increase In Open Interest)