Market likely to open firm

Key benchmark indices are likely to open firm following as the sentiment may be boosted after the government on Sunday, 11 January 2009 constituted a three-member board for the ailing Satyam Computer Services. However global cues were weak.

Asian markets were trading lower. China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.25% or 4.76 points at 1,900.09, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 1.15% or 165.71 points at 14,211.73, Singapore's Straits Times was down 1.29% or 23.24 points at 1,782.78, South Korea's Seoul Composite declined 1.12% or 13.25 points at 1,167.71. However, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted rose 0.65% or 29.04 points at 4,496.57.

US stocks fell on Friday after government data showed the labor market deteriorated further in December 2008, raising investor concerns about the outlook for profits, spending and a deepening recession. The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 143.28 points, or 1.64 per cent, to 8,599.18. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 19.38 points, or 2.13 per cent, to 890.35. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 45.42 points, or 2.81 per cent, to 1,571.59.

Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers worth Rs 350.55 crore while mutual funds sold shares worth Rs 13.26 crore on Friday, 9 January 2009, according to provisional data on NSE.