Bias may remain bearish

The sentiment is likely to remain bearish following weakness in the Asian and US indices, and the continued relentless selling pressure in the domestic market. Also FIIs remained net sellers of stocks in last three straight sessions may further dampen the investors' sentiment. Key indices, the Nifty may get support at 5100 level and on the upside it could test higher levels at 5506. The Sensex has a likely support at 17300 and may face resistance at 18494. Bhushan Steel, Dish TV, Eicher Motors, Finolex Industries, GTL, HCL Infosys, Hindistan Zinc, LIC housing Finanace and Rolta are expected to announce their quarterly numbers.

US indices declined sharply on Friday on concerns of economic slowdown on the back of slower corporate earnings, record-high oil prices and more problems in the bank sector. While the Dow Jones slipped almost 367, seeing its third biggest fall of the year to close at 13522, the Nasdaq lost 74 points to close at 2725.

Indian ADRs trading on the US bourses, too, succumbed to heavy losses. Among the major losers VSNL, Rediff, MTNL and Wipro shed over 4-7% each. Infosys, Satyam, Dr Reddy's, Tata Motors, ICICI abnk, HDFC Bank and Patni Computers were down around 1-3% each.

Crude oil prices declined marginally, with the Nymex light crude oil for November delivery slipping by 87 cents to close at $89.47 a barrel. In the commodity space, the Comex gold for December series lost 30 cents to settle at $768.40 a troy ounce.