US recession fears may hover on local indices

The market is likely to continue its downtrend as major Asian gauges like the Nikkei, the Hang Seng index, the Kospi index and the Jakarta index have tumbled in current trades and US market slipped over 2% in yesterday's trades on U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments about worsening economic outlook. The domestic indices also received a heavy pounding for the last four sessions on the back of lack of clarity in the market. The Sensex erased over 1,000 points on intense selling backed by strong volatility during intra-day trades to finally closed at 19,700 marks on Thursday. Among the indices, the Nifty could test higher levels at 6,100 and has a supports at 5,840 and 5,675. The Sensex has a likely support at 19,500 and may face resistance at 20,500.

Key announcements like Anant Raj Industries, BASF, Guj Alkalies, ITC, IFCI, Kirloskar Oil Engineens, NIIT Tech, Power Fincial Corporation, Wipro are expected to announce their figures.

US indices tumbled on Thursday on recession worries following comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, a big quarterly loss by Merrill Lynch and weak readings on the housing and manufacturing sectors. While the Dow Jones fell 307 points at 12159, the Nasdaq slipped by 48 points to close at 2347.

Indian floats also tumbled on the US bourses. Wipro, VSNL, Dr Reddy's, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, MTNL and Rediff dropped over 1-5% each. However, Infosys and satyam gained marginally.