Caution should be exercised

The market is likely to remain volatile amid worries about the possible recession in US and mixed Asian markets in current trades. The presence of strong bullish sentiment may help the market to turn positive. However, the FIIs have turned net sellers of equities in the last session may weigh on the investor sentiment. The Nifty could test higher levels at 6,260 and may dip around 5,850, while the Sensex has a likely support at 19,500 and may face resistance at 21,000.

US indices finished marginally weak on Thursday as investors mulled a jump in factory orders, near record oil and gold prices. While the Dow Jones gained 13 points at 13,057, the Nasdaq dropped 7 points to close at 2,603 on weakness in tech stocks.

Few Indian ADRs closed with marginal gains on the US bourses. MTNL gained over 2% while Wipro, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Rediff gained over 1% each. However, Infosys, Satyam, Dr Reddy's Lab and VSNL shed around 1-2% each.

Crude oil prices moved down, with the Nymex light crude oil for February delivery slipped by 44 cents at $99.62 a barrel. In the commodity segment, the Comex gold for February series added $9.10 to settle at $869.10 a troy ounce.