Market may move sideways

The presense of a sharp intra-day volatile trend due to lack of clarity may see the market remain edgy and move on the either side of the zone. Marginally fall at the US markets coupled with a mixed Asian indices trend in the present trades could make the market volatile in early trades. Also the SEBI's meeting to finalise the norms for divestment of brokers' stake in stock exchanges could hold the key.

Barring few, majority of the Indian floats ended at lower levels for the second day in a row. VSNL was the biggest loser and tumbled above 4%. HDFC Bank, Satyam and Wipro shed over 2% each while ICICI Bank, MTNL and Infosys declined over 1-2%. However, Tata Motors bucked the downtrend and soares 1.76% while Satyam was up nearly 1%. Patni ended the day with marginal gain.

US indices declined on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones falling by 50 points to close at 12031, while the Nasdaq ended weak at 2334, down 32 points.

Crude oil prices marginally down, with the Nymex light crude oil for December delivery falling by $0.02 to close at $58.71 a barrel and the London Brent Crude moving up by $0.35 to close at $59.03. In the commodity space, the Comex gold gained $12.50 to settle at $619.30 an ounce.

On Oct 31 2006, FIIs were net buyers of stocks to the tune of Rs323.80 crore (purchases worth Rs2,343.60 crore and sales of Rs2,019.90 crore) while domestic mutual funds were net buyers of stocks to the tune of Rs73.70 crore (purchases worth Rs666.10 crore and sales of Rs592.40 crore).

Stock to Watch

Bajaj Auto Finance's Board is likely to meet toady to discussed the Rights issue.

Color Chips India forayed into the Australian market by signing major contract through its marketing arm in Australia.