Market may remain steady with upward bias

A positive opening in most of the Asian indices in ongoing trades and prevailing strong bullish sentiment may help the local market advance further. However, market may witness some volatility in later part of the session due to the recent geo-political tension making FIIs jittery to park their funds. Among the local indices, the Nifty could test 6,200 on the upside and may slip to 5,850 on the downside. The Sensex has a likely support at 19,500 and may face resistance at 21,000.

Us indices closed flat on Friday, as economic and housing woes scuttled hopes for a year-end rally. While the Dow Jones gained six points, and the Nasdaq slipped by two points.

Indian floats trading on the US bourses fared better on Friday, the gainers were, HDFC Bank registering the highest gains over 3.34% while ICICI Bank Satyam, Wipro, Dr Reddy's, Tata Motors and Dr Reddy's gained around 1-3% each. Infosys, MTNL, VSNL and Rediff, however, dropped around 1% each.

Crude oil prices slipped marginally, while the Nymex light crude oil for February delivery slipped by 62 cents to close at $96 a barrel. In the commodity segment, the Comex gold for February series flared up $10.90 to settle at $842.70 an ounce.