Volatility may continue

Intra-day volatile moves in the market is likely to persist in the near-term on the back of a slightly bearish sentiment. Overnight fall in the US indices and the subdued Asian indices so far may see the market remain edgy. And, also on the negative side, the market continues to witness strong fund outflows from both FIIs and the local fund houses, which could help the sentiment remain bearish in the long run. Among the key local indices, the Nifty faces resistance in the 3700 while on the downside it has a short-term support at 3566 and a break below could see it decline towards the 3480 level. The Sensex has a likely support at 12500 and could test higher levels of 12800.

US indices fell marginally on Wednesday, while the Dow Jones tumbled 15 points at 12192, the Nasdaq was down 11 points at 2375.

Indian floats also took a sharp beating on the US bourses. Patni Computers crashed over 3.72% while infosys plunged by over 2%. Among the other laggards Satyam, Wipro, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and VSNL shed around 1% each. However, MTNL and Dr Reddys bucked the downtrend and ended with steady gains.Rediff However, remained unchanged.

Crude oil prices gained, the Nymex light crude oil for April delivery gaining by $1.13 to close at $61.80. In the commodity space, while the Comex gold for April series gained $6.70 to settle at $652.90 respectively.