The last week was a truncated one but we witnessed a lot of action in the market. Nifty settled at 16,450.50 on August 20.

Looking at the weekly close of the benchmark, one might think that there was not much damage despite a lot of uncertainty across the globe.

But if we closely observe individual stocks outside the IT and the FMCG spaces, brutal knocks are clearly visible.

There has been an onslaught on many counters in the derivatives space as well.

Such things can be deceptive because some of the other heavyweight baskets keep the index higher and this time it was defensive names like IT and FMCG.

The weekly chart of Nifty now exhibits a ‘Shooting Star’ candle which is an indication of some pause if the low of the candle is breached on a closing basis.

For this week, the cluster of supports at 16,350–16,250–16,150 should be observed closely.

As of now, there is no indication of Nifty sliding below the lower range of this support zone. But you never know how global developments pan out.

Nifty may gain strength only after convincingly surpassing the band of 16,500–16,600.

Also, the Bank Nifty and the Nifty Midcap 50 indices are trading at make or break levels. Since this week is the monthly expiry week, it would be interesting to see how things unfold.

Traders are advised to remain light for a while and the ideal strategy would be to look at the individual stocks rather than the benchmark index.