Market may advance further on firm global cues

After crossing the psychological mark of 15,000 yesterday the market is likely to move forward taking cues from firm Asian markets in current trades and overnight gains in US markets. The gradual increase in fund inflows in domestic equities and presence of strong bullish sentiment also help the market to remain firm. However, today being the last day of August derivative expiry series may keep the market volatile in the later part of the day. Among the local indices, the Nifty could test 4,400 on the upside and may slip to 4,290 on the downside. The Sensex has a likely support at 14,700 and may face resistance at 15,250.

Major US indices registered significant gains on Wednesday, on the back of big drop in yen and encouraging comments from Federal Reserve chairman on recent market turmoil. While the Dow Jones flared up by 247 points at 13,289, the Nasdaq moved up by 63 points to close at 2563.

All the Indian ADRs traded firm on the US bourses. Patni Computer led the pack with gains of nearly 7% while MTNL, Wipto and Infosys jumped over 4% each. Among other gainers Satyam, Dr Reddy's Lab,Tata motors, Rediff, ICICI Bank and HDFC abank added around 1-3% each.

Crude oil prices advanced further, with the Nymex light crude oil for October delivery gaining by $1.78 to close at $73.51 a barrel. In the commodity space, the Comex gold for December delivery gained $1.90 to settle at $675.40 an ounce.