Markets have a mind of their own and they moved in a listless manner over the last week drifting down. They however took technical support at levels which were mentioned last week and recovered. Whether the recovery is short lived or meaningful, only time will tell. For the week they have survived. BSESENSEX gained on one of the five trading sessions and lost on four. It was down 338.30 points or 0.40% to close at 84,929.36 points while NIFTY lost 80.55 points or 0.31% to close at 25,966.40 points. BANK NIFTY lost 320.75 points or 0.54% to close at 59,069.20 points. The broader markets saw BSE100, BSE200 AND BSE500 lose 0.26%, 0.22% and 0.23% respectively. BSEMIDCAP gained a tad at 0.15% while BSESMALLCAP lost 0.18%. The lows from where markets turned on Thursday were at 84,238.43 points on BSESENSEX and at 25,726.30 points on NIFTY.

The Indian Rupee which has been under pressure managed to hold on and gained 9 paisa or 0.10% to close at Rs 90.43 to the US Dollar. Dow Jones gained on two of the five sessions and lost on three. It lost 323.16 points or 0.67% to close at 48,134.89 points.

Coming to primary markets, we had five listings last week. While there were two listings on Monday and Wednesday each, the fifth and final listing was on Friday. There is IPO fatigue and of the five listings we had two closing below issue price on day one. Yet another slipped during the week. Only two had great debuts. The first was Corona Remedies which against an issue price of Rs 1,062 closed day one at Rs 1,437.20. The share lost ground during the week and closed at Rs 1,374.85, a gain of Rs 312.85 or 29.86%.

The other star performer was the issue from ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd which had issued shares at Rs 2,165. The share listed at Rs 2,606.20 on BSE and at Rs 2,600 on NSE. The share closed at Rs 2,586.70, a gain of Rs 421.70, or 19.48%. The gains were impressive because this was a mega issue of over Rs 10,600 crores. Further the delivery volume on day one was a massive 2.22 crore shares which was 70.82% of the traded volume of 3.14 crore shares. The issue size was 4.89 crore shares and if one were to consider it without the anchor position, this would reduce to 2.93 crore shares. This means that on day one, as much as 75.57% of the non-anchor position has changed hands. This augurs well for the share and signals fresh upsides in the short to medium term for the share. With the company becoming the new market benchmark for listed AMC stocks, one would follow this for trends in the mutual fund industry.

The shares to trade lower on listing day were Wakefit Innovations and Park Medi World. The one that after listing positive on day one slipped into negative territory was Nephrocare Health Services Limited.

There is one issue opening in the week ahead from Gujarat Kidney and Super Specialty Limited. The issue consists of a fresh issue of 2.2 crore shares in a price band of Rs 108-114. The issue would open on Monday the 22nd of December and close on Wednesday the 24th of December. The objects of the offer include two acquisitions. The first is of Parekhs Hospital Pvt Limited and the second is of Ashwini Medical Centre, both of which are operating hospitals in Gujarat. Further, the company since filing the DRHP has acquired another hospital, Harmony Medicare in the current first half of FY26. Considering these three facts the present PE multiple of 58.38-61.62 does not take into account the same. If one had an insight into the working of these three hospitals and their past performance it would have helped in better evaluation of the same. In any case, considering the business model of growing through acquisitions, acquiring hospital which are mid-sized, located in Gujarat, where promoters and people running the hospital are doctors, is a great business model. Investments are warranted for the long term considering the upside with the acquisitions mentioned.

It appears that post this issue, primary markets on the main board are likely to take a short holiday hopefully. It would be a good time to look at the over 103 issues listed in the year so far and final number of 105 that would complete the tally for 2025.

Coming back to the markets in the week ahead, we still await news. Till now it was news on the Ukraine-Russia war and the India US trade deal. To that, we will now add news on Q3 results which will be upcoming in January. Even small positive news would be big for markets, while no news would be bad news. We have solid support at levels of 25,700 on NIFTY and last Thursday was an example of the same. On the upside, resistance zone currently exists at 26,250 points.

The strategy would be to refrain from large positions. Also remember we celebrate Christmas on Thursday the 25th of December which is a global holiday for major markets. It breaks any momentum which may build in the market and reverse trends. I believe with the year end a mere 7 trading sessions away, time to look at start preparing for your portfolio balancing and reshuffle for 2026.

Merry Christmas in advance and trade cautiously.

Arun Kejriwal (Market Veteran Investor & Opinion Maker)