Upturn may continue

After yesterday's pullback the market bias remains positive. The overnight gains in US markets and the major Asian indices like NIkkei, Hang Seng, Kospi, Straits Times and Jakarta Composite are trading with gains at nearly 1% each. The falling crude oil prices may help the investor sentiment remain bullish. However, the government's decision to control the rising cement prices by introducing cut in import duty may hurt the cement stocks today. The investors should remain cautious as intra-day volatility can not be ruled out. Among the domestic indices, the Nifty could test higher levels of 3725 and may dip to 3635 on the downside. The Sensex has a likely support at 12500 and may face resistance at 12800.

US indices jumped on Tuesday in a broad-based rally as investors welcomed falling oil prices and encouraging signs from the troubled housing market. While the Dow Jones was up by 128 points at 12510, the Nasdaq ended 28 points up at 2450.

All the Indian floats ended with gains on the US bourses. MTNL and Dr Reddy's rose over 5% while Infosys, Satyam, , Wipro gained over 3-4% each and Tata Motors, CICI Bank, HDFC Bank, VSNL and Patni Computers gained over 1-2% each.

Crude oil prices fell as the UK planned peaceful talks with Iran on the release of its hostages. While the Nymex light crude oil for May delivery slipped by $1.30 at $64.64 a barrel. In the commodity space, the Comex gold for June series moved down by $1.80 to settle at $669.70a troy ounce.