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 271 points at 13812 while Hang Seng has moved down 107 points at 25574. On the technical front, the Nifty could test in the 5,050-5,085 range on the upside and has support at 4915, while the Sensex has a likely support at 16570 and may face resistance at 16855.

US indices posted steady gains on Thursday with the Dow Jones moving 86 points up to close at 12849, while the Nasdaq added 24 points to close at 2429.

Among the Indian ADRs trading on the US bourses, Satyam was the major gainer by 4.80%, followed by ICICI Bank up by 2.80%, HDFC Bank advanced 2.71%, VSNL gained 2.37% and Infosys scaled up 2.11%. Wipro & Tata Motors were up around 1%. However, Patni, Rediff, MTNL and Dr Reddy's slipped into the red.

Crude oil prices in the US market moved down, with the Nymex Light crude oil for June delivery moving down by $2.24 to close at $116.06 a barrel. In the Commodity segment, the Comex gold for June series lost $19.60 to settle at $889.40 a troy ounce.