Bias may remain negative

After falling almost 424 points in the last three trading sessions, the south bound journey may continue further on weak international markets, higher global crude oil prices and strengthening rupee against dollar. However, today being the last day of derivatives expiry for the March series, investors winding up their position may help the sentiment turn positive. Among the local indices the Nifty could test 3725 and 3680 on the downside while on the upper side it may move up to 3900. The Sensex has a likely support at 12800 and may face resistance at 13400.

U.S. indices ended lower on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he was uncomfortable with inflation and uncertain about the economy. While the Dow Jones dropped 97 points at 12300, the Nasdaq fell by 20 points to close at 2417.

Barring few select ADRs, most of the floats had a weak outing. Tata Motors tumbled by 3% while Infosys, Wipro, HDFC Bank, Satyam and VSNL slumped over 1-2% each. Among the select gainers Dr Reddy's gained over 1% while Rdiff, Patni Computers and MTNL ended with steady gains.

Crude oil prices edged higher, with the Nymex light crude oil for May series rising by $1.15 to close at $64.08 a barrel. In the commodity segment, the Comex gold for June delivery jumped $4.10 to settle at $672.90 a troy ounce.