North-bound journey to continue

Market may extend its bullish trend following strong gains in the US markets and over 1-2% gains in the ongoing Asian markets. However, FIIs remaining net sellers in domestic equities for last couple of session likely to exert some pressure on the market sentiment. Investors should maintain caution as higher bouts of volatility is likely to persists on the back of market's sharp run-up in last couple of sessions. Key local indices, the Nifty could test higher levels around 4500 in the short term and has a key support at 4400. The Sensex is likely to test 15200 on the downside while it may face resistance at 15400.

US indices gained immense strength in the last minute of the session on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones soaring by 1.14% or 153 points to close at 13658. The Nasdaq also ended firm with gains of 51 points at 2613.

All the Indian ADRs witnessed decent to firm buying support. Infosys was the major gainer amongst the ADRs and vaulted over 5.65%, while Satyam and ICICI Bank vaulted 5%, while Wipro, Dr Reddy's, Tata Motors, VSNL, MTNL, Rediff and HDFC Bank were up over 1-4% each.

Crude oil prices eased a little. While the Nymex light crude oil for September series slipped by 27 cents at $72.15 a barrel. In the commodity segment, the Comex gold for December series shot up by $4 to settle at $686.30 an ounce.