Range-bound moves likely

The market showed resilience in yesterday's trades and is likely to move in a range with select bouts of buying and selling activities today. On the downside, the Nifty has a likely support at the 4980-4930 range and could test higher levels of 5066 and 5118 while the Sensex has a support at 16736 and resistance at 17136.

US indices came off their early highs and ended with slim gains on Thursday. While the Dow Jones added 24 points to 12626, the Nasdaq was up 16 points at 2465.

Indian ADR gainers outnumbered losers on the US bourses. Dr Reddy's flared up 3.59% and HDFC Bank moved up 2.15% while Satyam, Wipro, Infosys, VSNL, Rediff and Patni Computer ended with steady gains. Among losers, MTNL tanked 1.21% while Tata Motors and ICICI Bank also ended at lower levels.

Crude oil prices in the international market declined on Thursday, with the Nymex US light crude oil for June delivery dipping $2.36 to close at $130.81 a barrel. In the commodity space, the Comex gold lost $10.30 to settle at $918.30 an ounce.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities
On May 21, 2008 FIIs were net sellers of stocks to the tune of Rs611.40 crore (purchases worth Rs2,830.30 crore and sales of Rs3,441.70 crore) while domestic mutual funds were net buyers of stocks to the tune of Rs13.10 crore (purchases worth Rs622.60 crore and sales of Rs609.50 crore).