Oil worries may drag market

The market may remain under pressure owing to an overnight fall in the US markets and the Asian indices mirroring the trend by sailing in negative territory in the ongoing trades. In the last three sessions, the market advanced by over 258 points breaching the all-time high in yesterday's trades despite weak international markets amid renewed optimism amongst the local investors. The market will also be focusing on the global crude oil front as the crude prices has hit the $100 mark in yesterday's trades. Among the local indices, the Nifty could test higher levels at 6,200 or 6,400 and on the downside it has support at 5,850. The Sensex has a likely support at 19,500 and may face resistance at 21,000.

US indices continued to reel under oil price surge and worries about the expected recession. Markets slumped on Wednesday, the first trading day of the new year, as oil and gold prices reached their record highs and weak manufacturing report indicated a possible recession. The Dow Jones slumped 221 points to close at 13,044 while the Nasdaq ended 43 points lower at 2,610.

With the exception of few, rest of the Indian floats fell in tune with the broader market. Infosys, Satyam, Wipro, HDFC Bank and VSNL dropped over 2-3% each. However, MTNL surged 8.34% while, Dr Reddy's, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank and Rediff gained 1-3% each.

Crude oil and gold traded near records after a slump in the dollar against major currencies. Oil reached a record $100 a barrel yesterday and gold soared to its highest ever. The Nymex light crude oil for February delivery came off its high of $100 a barrel and ended $3.62 higher at $99.62 per barrel. In the commodity space, the Comex gold for February series jumped $22 to settle at $860 an ounce.