Market may remain uncertain

A look at how the indices fared at their closes: Sensex 10451 (+3.77%); Nifty 3091 (+4.36%); Nasdaq 2219 (-0.02%); Dow 11248 (-0.11%). On June 01 2006, FIIs were net sellers of stocks to the tune of Rs282.20 crore (purchases worth Rs2,317.80 crore and sales of Rs2,600 crore) while domestic mutual funds were net buyers of stocks to the tune of Rs125.59 crore (purchases worth Rs496.74 crore and sales of Rs371.15 crore).

Uncertainity in the market is likely to prevail even as the indices bounced back sharply and registered strong gains on Friday. Nervousness over FIIs remaining net sellers of equities, sharp intra-day volatility and weak global commodity markets are some of the factors that could make the investors jittery from taking fresh positions. However, reports of aggressive buying by a Japanese fund that has actually seen inflows of $250-300 million over the past couple of days may bring cheers to the market. Among the local indices, the Nifty could test higher levels around 3155 and on the downside it may have support at 2952. On the other hand, the Sensex has a likely support at 10275 and may face resistance at 10597.

Key US indices ended with modest losses on Friday as investors expressed concerns over the weak jobs report and allayed fears that it may lead to slow down in the economic growth. While the Dow Jones declined by 12 points at 11248, the Nasdaq ended a tad lower at 2219.

Indian ADRs tracking the domestic market sentiment largely finished with gains on the US bourses. Among the major gainers Wipro, Dr Reddy's, Tata Motors and VSNL surged over 3% each, while Infosys, Satyam, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank were up around 1-2% each. However, MTNL, Patni Computers and Rediff ended at lower levels.

Global crude oil prices edged higher, with the Nymex light crude oil for July series adding 42 cents at $72.75 a barrel and the London Brent crude jumping by $1.64 to close at $71.03 per barrel.