Caution has to be maintained as market is likely to remain volatile ahead of expiry of September derivative contracts.
Subdued Asian indices and sharp intra-day volatility may hold the investors from taking any fresh position. However, overnight mixed trend in the US markets coupled with a bullish sentiment in the present trades could see the market advance further. Among the local indices, the Nifty could test higher levels at 4200 and on the downside it has support at 4100. The Sensex has a likely support at 13550 and may face resistance at 13850.
The US indices finished on a flat note on Wednesday. The Dow Jones ended in negative at 10825, up 29 points, whereas the Nasdaq was up by 2 points at 2156.
Indian floats largely had a mixed trend on the US bourses. ICICI Bank rose 6.73% at $27.75, Patni Computer gained 6% at $8.48, ICICI Bank gained 3.23% at $27.75 and Wipro advanced 1.32% at $10.01. Among the laggards, Tata Motors was the major loser with a loss of 5.20% at $8.57 followed by VSNL, which dropped 4.44% at $4.30. Infosys tumbled 4.26% at $33.68, Rediff lost 2.92% at $20.31 and Dr Reddy's & Rediff slumped over 2% each. Satyam closed with marginal loss.
Crude oil prices in the international market slipped marginally, with the Nymex light crude oil for November series slipping by 88 cents to close at $105.73 a barrel. In the commodity segment, the Comex gold for December delivery raised by $3.80 to settle at $895 a troy ounce.
Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities
On September 23, 2008, FIIs were net sellers of stocks to the tune of Rs868 crore (purchases worth Rs1,896 crore and sales of Rs2,764 crore) while domestic mutual funds were net sellers of stocks to the tune of Rs226 crore (purchases worth Rs321 crore and sales of Rs547 crore).
