Rally to continue

The market is likely to make further headways following the firm Asian indices in current trades. The expectations of further rate cut from US Federal Reserve in the next meeting may also help the market to advance further. However, the market may see some short-term profit bookings in frontline stocks creating a volatility in the afternoon trades. Among the indices, the Nifty could test higher levels around the 5870, while on the downside it has a key support at 5398. The Sensex has a likely support at 18300 and may face resistance at 19500. Key announcements like Bank of India, BHEL, Indiabulls Real-estate, Jindal Steel, Jet Airways, M&M, Maruti Udyog, Monsanto, Praj Industries, PNB, Sobha Developers, Sterlite and Tata Tea are expected to announce their earnings numbers.

US indices closed higher on Friday as upbeat earnings from Microsoft helped market sentiment to overcome any potential worries about a plunging dollar, surging oil and gold prices. While the Dow Jones gained 135 points at 13807, the Nasdaq added 53 points at 2804.

Indian floats ended higher on US bourses. ICICI Bank rallied sharply and gained over 11%. HDFC Bank, VSNL and Satyam rose over 10-6% while Dr Reddy's, MTNL, Rediff, Infosys, Patni Computer and Tata Motors gained over 1-4% each.

Global crude oil prices moved up, with the Nymex light crude oil for December series rose by $1.40 to close at $91.86 per barrel. In the commodity space, the Comex gold for December delivery rose by $16.50 to settle at $787.50 an ounce.