Market may remain positive

The market is expected to remain firm as investors have got mixed cues from the US and positive cues from the European markets. Major Asian indices like Nikkei are trading with gains of more than 200 points in morning trades. All this will boost investor sentiment in early trades. However, on the technical side, the Nifty could test 5255 on the upside and find support in the 5200-5150 range whereas the Sensex may face resistance at 17750 and find support at 17440.

US indices exhibited a mixed trend on Friday, with the Dow Jones moving up by 48 points to close at 13058 and the Nasdaq dropping by three points to close at 2477.

Except HDFC Bank, which was down marginally by 0.19 %, all the Indian floats had a decent outing on the US bourses. Rediff was the biggest gainer and rose 5.38% while Satyam scaled up 4.54%. MTNL, Wipro, ICICI Bank and VSNL jumped by over 2-3% each while Infosys, Tata Motors, Dr Reddy's and Patni Computer gained around 1% each.

Crude oil prices in the US market gained sharply, with the Nymex light crude oil for June delivery adding $3.27 to close at $116.32 a barrel. In the commodity space, the Comex gold for June 08 series rose $7.10 to settle at $858 an ounce.