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Sensex technical analysis: read BSE:SENSEX on your own charts

Sensex technical analysis step by step in SuperCharting: timeframes, trend, support and resistance, indicators, Nifty comparison and the BSE:SENSEX technicals page.

Sensex technical analysis means studying the price chart of the BSE Sensex, symbol BSE:SENSEX, to judge its trend, its key levels and its momentum. A sound routine goes top-down: the monthly and weekly charts for direction and major levels, the daily chart for structure, then the hourly chart for timing. SuperCharting gives you the chart, the indicators and a ready-made Sensex technicals page; the reading is yours. This guide is educational, not a buy or sell call. (If you searched for "sensax", this is the same index.)

What you are analysing

The Sensex is the BSE's index of 30 large companies. It holds many of the same heavyweights as the Nifty 50, such as NSE:RELIANCE, NSE:HDFCBANK, NSE:ICICIBANK, NSE:INFY and NSE:TCS, so the two indices usually move almost in step. That is useful: a Sensex setup that the Nifty does not confirm deserves a second look.

An index is not traded itself, so its feed may carry no volume. Tools that need volume, such as VWAP and the volume profile, belong on a stock or a futures contract, not on BSE:SENSEX. Price-only tools (trend lines, moving averages, RSI, MACD, pivots) work fine on the index. Symbols and data sources are covered in NSE charts for Nifty and Bank Nifty; Sensex data comes from the same broker feed and public fallbacks, and the Data type menu in the chart header shows which one is serving your chart.

Step 1: choose timeframes top-down

Do not mix signals across rows. A 15-minute bounce inside a daily downtrend is a counter-trend trade, whatever the indicator says. Read the higher chart first and let the lower chart refine it.

Step 2: read the trend

An uptrend is a series of higher swing highs and higher swing lows; a downtrend is the reverse. Add two moving averages on the daily chart, for example a 50 and a 200, and ask three plain questions: is price above both, are both sloping up, and is the 50 above the 200? Three yeses describe an uptrend; the moving averages guide shows how to set the lengths.

For a trend line you can see at a glance, add Supertrend (ATR Length 10, Factor 3 by default; see the Supertrend guide). Its colour tells you which side of the line price is on, but it lags and flips often in a sideways market, so use it as a filter.

Step 3: mark key levels

Levels are prices where the index has turned before. Start with the ones most traders also see:

• Swing highs and lows on the daily and weekly charts.
• Round numbers, such as 80,000 or 85,000.
• The previous day's, week's and month's high and low. The built-in Pivot points standard indicator works out pivot levels from the last period's high, low and close, with a Type (Traditional, Fibonacci, Woodie, Classic, DM, Camarilla) and a Pivots timeframe that is Auto by default.
• Retracement levels of the last big move, from the Fibonacci tools.

Draw horizontal rays with the drawing tools, then right-click a level and choose Add alert on SENSEX at the price, so you are told when it is reached.

Step 4: add a few indicators, not twenty

Two or three tools covering different questions are enough:

• Trend: the moving averages above.
• Momentum: RSI with its default length of 14. Readings above 50 favour buyers and below 50 favour sellers; 70 and 30 are the classic marks, but a strong index can stay above 70 for weeks. See the RSI guide.
• Confirmation: MACD (12, 26, 9 by default) for a shift in momentum. See the MACD guide.

Indicators describe what price has already done. They do not predict it.

Step 5: check the Nifty and the wider market

Press the Compare symbols button in the top toolbar and add NSE:NIFTY, then NSE:BANKNIFTY. The chart switches to a percent scale and lines up all three from the left edge of what you see, so you can tell at once whether the Sensex is leading or lagging. For a broader view, add NSE:NIFTY_MID_SELECT, the midcap index: if the Sensex makes a new high while midcaps fall, the rally is narrow.

For a look under the surface, open Products > Heatmaps and choose BSE Sensex from the source list. Each of the 30 stocks is a tile coloured by its change, so you see in seconds whether a rise comes from many stocks or a few. The built-in advance-decline scripts are built on US market counts, so do not use them for Indian breadth.

The ready-made Sensex technicals page

SuperCharting publishes a technicals page for the index at /symbols/BSE-SENSEX/technicals/. It shows three gauges (Oscillators, Summary, Moving averages), each from Strong sell to Strong buy, with the value and action of 11 oscillators and 15 moving averages for the daily timeframe. Inside the app, the Technicals panel under Products offers the same ratings for 1 minute to 1 month. Treat it as a quick summary of what the indicators say today; the technical analysis rating guide explains how each row votes and where it falls short. If no rating is published for a symbol, the page says so.

How to do a Sensex analysis in SuperCharting

1. Press Ctrl + K, type sensex and choose the BSE index, BSE:SENSEX.
2. Open the layout button and pick a three-chart layout. Under SYNC IN LAYOUT, switch Symbol and Crosshair on and Interval off.
3. Set the charts to 1 month, 1 day and 1 hour using the interval button.
4. On the daily chart, click Indicators and add two moving averages, then Relative strength index.
5. Draw rays at the swing highs and lows you can see on the monthly chart.
6. Click Compare symbols and add NSE:NIFTY.
7. Press Ctrl + S to save the layout to your account.

A worked example with made-up numbers

Suppose the monthly chart shows higher highs and higher lows, and the index fell last week to 81,200 on the daily chart. The 50-day average sits at 80,900 and the last swing high, now a possible support, is at 80,000. RSI has cooled from 68 to 48. That is a pullback inside an uptrend into a zone where three things line up. A trader following this method would then watch the hourly chart for the fall to stop. If the daily chart closes under 79,800, below both the average and the swing high, the idea is wrong and the analysis starts again. None of this guarantees anything: past behaviour of a level or indicator does not guarantee future results.

Frequently asked questions

Is "sensax" the same as Sensex?

Yes. It is a common misspelling of the BSE Sensex, whose chart symbol is BSE:SENSEX.

Which timeframe is best for Sensex analysis?

The one that matches how long you hold. Use that chart plus one or two higher ones, for example 1h with 1D and 1W, so the larger trend frames the smaller move.

Can I see Sensex options?

Yes. With BSE:SENSEX on the chart, open Products > Options to browse its option chain by expiry and strike. The options chain guide shows how.

Does the Sensex chart show volume?

Often not, because an index has no traded volume of its own. Use a liquid Sensex stock for volume tools.