8115-8373 IS THE IMMEDIATE RANGE

8115-8373 IS THE IMMEDIATE RANGE

WORLD MARKETS                             

US indices gained between 0.1%-0.7% on Friday with the Dow and S&P 500 closing at records and posting a second week of gains.

Nymex crude settled down 2% or $1.11 at $54.73 a barrel. Wednesday's DOE report showed a 7.3 million-barrel rise in crude inventories to their highest December level on record. Brent oil fell 79 cents to settle at $59.45.

Most of the European markets were shut on Friday.

For the week, Dow gained 1.4% and S & P 500 and Nasdaq rose 0.9% each.

AT HOME

After a gap up opening, benchmark indices soon tumbled into red, but recovered through rest of the session to end with modest gains. Sensex settled at 27242, up 33 points while Nifty finished at 8201, up 27 points. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices gained 0.4% and 0.02% respectively. BSE Realty and IT indices gained the most among the sectoral indices, rising 0.9% and 0.8% respectively. FMCG and Consumer Durable indices lost 0.8% and 0.5% respectively.

FIIs net bought stocks worth Rs 40 cr but net sold index futures and stock futures worth Rs 21 cr and 55 cr respectively. DIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 417 cr.

Rupee depreciated 4 paise to end at 63.5575/$.

President Pranab Mukherjee signed two key ordinances allowing hike in the FDI cap in the insurance sector and facilitating e-auction of coal blocks.

For the week, Sensex and Nifty lost 0.5% and 0.3% respectively.

OUTLOOK

Today morning Shanghai and Hang Seng are up nearly 2%, other Asian markets are trading with modest gains and SGX Nifty is suggesting about 25 points higher opening for our market.

In Friday's report we had mentioned that 8155, the low made on Friday, is now the immediate support, below which Nifty can slide to 8050-7960 region. The benchmark, after touching a low of 8148 in the initial trade, rebounded to end at 8201.

This shows that bulls are trying hard to hold on to 8150 level. Also you have 61.8% retracement level of the recent 7961-8365 pullback is placed at 8115. Therefore it is difficult to take a fresh bearish view until these levels are taken out.

On the way up, 8250 is the immediate support on the hourly chart above which 8373, the 61.8% retracement level of the entire 8627-7961 fall, would be the major hurdle to eye. A crossover of 8373 would also confirm a higher-top higher-bottom formation on the daily chart, which will turn the near term view decisively bullish.