Stocks poised for a rocky start

Lack of clarity in the market, weak Asian indices and sharp intra-day volatility may hold the investors from taking any fresh position. US Federal policy makers lowered their growth forecast in October and worried about credit-market losses, despite the expected interest-rate cut. The market may remain under pressure owing to worries about subprime losses in the US and the Asian indices are also mirroring the trend by sailing in negative territory in the ongoing trades. Among the local indices, the Nifty could test 5748 on the downside while it may rise to 6000 in short-term. The Sensex has a likely support at 19500 and may face resistance at 20500.

US indices slipped in the afternoon on financial stocks and bearish Fed news, but recovered late in the session. While the Dow Jones gained by 52 points at 13010, the Nasdaq added three points to close at 2597.

Indian floats largely had a mixed outing on the US bourses. VSNL was the major gainer and rose 3.50% while Satyam, wipro, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Patni Computers ended with steady gains. Among the laggards Rediff and MTNL slumped over 3-4% each while Dr Reddy's and Infosys were down marginally.

Crude oil prices in the overseas market moved up marginally, with the Nymex light crude oil for January series gaining $3.39 to close at $98.03 a barrel. In the commodity space, the Comex gold for December delivery jumped by $13.40 to settle at $791.40 an ounce.