Market may start buoyant

The benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty, are expected to commence on a firm note and witness significant rally during intra-day trades, as international markets backed by firm US and Asian indices may help the sentiment remain buoyant. Among the Asian majors, Nikkei has surged 166 points at 12646 while Hang Seng has scaled up 782 points at 21890. On the technical front, the Nifty could test in the 4680-4700 range on the upside and has support at 4500, while the Sensex has a likely support at 15065 and may face resistance at 15470.

US indices posted steady gains on Monday with the Dow Jones moving 187 points up to close at 12549, while the Nasdaq added 69 points to close at 2327.

All the Indian floats had a decent outing on the US bourses. ICICI Bank was the biggest gainer and rose 13.10% while Rediff scaled up 9.60%. VSNL, Satyam, Infosys HDFC Bank, Tata Motors and Wipro jumped over 6-8% each while Patni Computers gained over 3%.

Crude oil prices in the US market moved up, with the Nymex Light crude oil for May 08 delivery moving down by 98 cents to close at $100.86 a barrel. In the Commodity segment, the Comex gold for April series lost $1.30 to settle at $918.70 a troy ounce.