South-bound journey may continue

Asian indices are also currently fell over 3-5% in the ongoing trades. FII's remaining net sellers in equities is likely to exert more pressure on the local metal stocks. Among the key domestic indices, the Nifty could test the recent low below 2950 on the downside and a break below could see it decline to 2850, while on the upside the index has resistances at 3000 and 3050. The Sensex has a likely support at 9700 and may face resistance at 9850. ABB, Abhishek Industries, Aditiya Birla Nova, Alstom Project, Ambuja Cement, Balaji Telecom, Bank of Maharashtra, BEL, Colgate, Crisil, Dish TV, HUL, ITC, Hexaware, IDBI Bank, Moser Bear, NTPC, Oracle, RECL and TV18 are expected to announce their numbers.

US indices witnessed a mixed on Thursday with the Dow Jones gains 172 points at 8691, the Nasdaq lost 12 points to close at 1604.

Majority of the Indian floats ended in the green. VSNL was the biggest gainer and gain over 10.08% followed by MTNL which was up 8.97%. Infosys, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Patni Computer were up 1-4% each. While Tata Motors lost 9.97%, Rediff moved down over 4.21%, Wipro declined 4.13% and Satyam, Dr Reddy lost over 0.10% each.

Crude oil prices gained marginally in the international market, with the Nymex light crude oil for November delivery moved up by $1.09 to close at $67.84 per barrel. In the commodity space, the Comex gold for December delivery lost $20.50 to settle at $714.70 an ounce.