Caution should be exercised as the market may move in tandem with weak Asian indices.
The market is monitoring the international markets for further direction and the weakness across the global markets may drag down the local indices. The market may open in negative territory following the slump in Asian markets in morning trades coupled with the worries of continues offloading of domestic equities by the FIIs. However, after posting significant gains in last two sessions, buying interest may continue on the back of firm trend and fall in crude oil prices. Among the key local indices, the Nifty has good support around 4280-4200 levels and upside till 4375-4440 levels. The Sensex has a likely support at 14150 and may face resistance at 14450.
US indices slipped on Thursday on back of labor market and a reading on the economy's growth that was less positive than forecast. The Dow ended lower at 11378 down 206 points, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined to close 4 points lower at 2326.
Indian ADRs had a mixed outing on the US bourses. Among the major losers MTNL and Dr Reddy lost above 3% each followed by HDFC Bank, VSNL, Satyam, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank and Patni Computer that shed over 0.67-2 % each. Rediff however gained 2.60%, while Wipro and Infosys gained around 1% each.
Oil prices fell below $123 on Thursday after economic data came in much weaker than forecast. The Nymex light crude oil for September delivery slipped by $2.69 to close at $124.08 a barrel. In the commodity space, the Comex gold for December delivery tumbled $10.40 to settle at $922.70 an ounce.
Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities
On July 29, 2008, FIIs were net sellers of stocks to the tune of Rs392 crore (purchases worth Rs2,464 crore and sales of Rs2,856 crore) while domestic mutual funds were net buyers of stocks to the tune of Rs690 crore (purchases worth Rs1147 crore and sales of Rs457 crore).
