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 1.55% at 14563 while Hang Seng has scaled up nearly 1.06% at 24513. However, intra-day volatility cannot be ruled out and caution should be maintained as crude oil rises sharply and could trigger further slump. On the technical front, the Nifty could test in the 4720-4760 range on the upside and has supports in the 4640-4600 range, while the Sensex has a likely support at 15649 and may face resistance at 15900.

US indices posted significant gains on Thursday as investors' cheered the strong consumer confidence report. As a result, the Dow Jones to close at 12604, up 214 points, while the Nasdaq added 47 points to close at 2550.

Except Tata Motors, rest of the Indian floats had a decent outing on the US bourses. VSNL was the biggest gainer and rose 9.83% while MTNL, Infosys, Satyam, Wipro, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank scaled up above 5% each. Other gainers like Dr Reddy, Rediff and Patni Computer gained over 1-3% each.

Crude oil prices in the US market gained sharply, with the Nymex light crude oil for July delivery raising by $5.49 to close at $127.79 a barrel and in the commodity segment, the Comex gold for August series lost $8.30 to settle at $875.50 a troy ounce.