Market may remain firm

Rally in US markets after the Fed minutes indicated that the economy can avoid a recession, despite slower growth and rising unemployment. Positive opening in most of the Asian indices in ongoing trades may also help the local market advance further. However, investors should remain cautious on the back of high intra-day volatility. But, marginal increase in FII inflows can help the sentiment to remain positive. Among the key indices, the Nifty faces resistance at 5,500-6,300 levels and has a key support at 5,040 levels in the near-term. The Sensex has a likely support at 17,140 and may face resistance at 19,000.

Major US indices registered significant gains on Wednesday, after the Federal Reserve's minutes indicated that the economy can avoid a recession, despite slower growth, rising unemployment and more pricing pressures. While the Dow Jones flared up by 90 points at 12,427, the Nasdaq moved up by 21 points to close at 2,327.

Most of the Indian ADRs traded firm on the US bourses. HDFC Bank led the pack with gains of 1.20% while Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, Dr Reddy's, VSNL and MTNL gained over 0.50% each. However, Rediff, Tata Motors and ICICI Bank slipped over 1-2% each.

Oil prices reached another settlement high on Wednesday and closed above $101 a barrel as traders took the Federal Reserve's weak economic report as a signal that more interest rate cuts are coming. The Nymex light crude oil for March delivery gaining 73 cents to close at $100.74 a barrel. In the commodity space, the Comex gold for April delivery gained by $8 to settle at $937.80 an ounce.