Sensex may open gap-down open

It was a red Wednesday for US indices that fell strongly for the second consecutive day, wherein the major indices recorded losses in the range of 0.59%-0.92% each, however the European indices (FTSE 100) closed marginally higher by 0.28% or 14 points at 5258. While in today’s trade, the major Asian indices were trading lower in the range of 0.33%-1.19% each. Even the Singapore Nifty was trading 31 points below its previous day’s settlement price. Considering such weak global cues for the second consecutive day, Sensex may open lower and trade in negative territory through the day. Among the local indices, the Nifty could test the 5000- 4920 range on the down side while on the up side it could find support at 5100 and 5300. The Sensex is likely to get support at 16606 and may face resistance at 17700.

On Wednesday, Dow broke the significant 10000 level and major US indices closed with losses on the back of heavy selling in the closing hours in the financial,retail and IT stocks. Dow closed 92 points or 0.92% lower at 9949, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq lost 0.89% and 0.59% respectively.

Among the Indian ADRs trading on the US bourses, only Rediff closed with decent gains of 3.45%. While rest all ADRs that includes Infosys, Satyam, MTNL, Tata Motors, Wipro, VSNL and ICICI Bank ended the day with the losses in the range of 0.59%-4.68% each.

In the commodity space, Crude oil prices surged strongly, with the Nymex light crude oil for November series rising by $2.25 to close at $ 81.37 a barrel. In the metals space, the Comex Gold for December series rose by $5.90 to settle at $1064.50 a troy ounce, while Comex Silver for December series fell by $0.27 to settle at $17.83 a troy ounce.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities
On October 21, 2009, FIIs remained the net buyers of the Indian Stocks for the straight sixth day on trot in the tune of Rs1770.00 crore (with the gross purchase of Rs4478.30 crore and gross sales of Rs2708.30 crore). While the Domestic mutual funds mutual funds, on October 20, 2009, were the net seller of the stocks in the tune of Rs317.90crore (with gross purchase of Rs613.60 crore and gross sales of Rs931.60 crore).