European markets improved last night, as did the US indices. Asian markets are also up this morning, and the global short-term trend has turned up. However, the rallies are mild ones. We can therefore expect some more gains today.

The market rallied on Wednesday, with the Sensex up 225.49 points (1.35%) at 16,978.35, the Nifty 53.95 points (1.09%) at 5,011.75, and the CNX Midcap 59.45 points (0.88%) at 6,798.35. The biggest positive contributions to the Sensex came from Infosys (56.0 points), Reliance (30.2), Bharti Airtel (26.3), Tata Steel (26.1), HDFC (25.6), TCS (22.9), Hindalco (15.5), Reliance Comm (14.4), ICICI Bank (13.6), Reliance Energy (10.4), Jaiprakash Assoc (6.7), Larsen & Toubro (6.0) and Maruti Suzuki (5.7). The largest negative contributions were came from ONGC (36.3 points) and HDFC Bank (7.1).

The market's breadth was neutral, with advances outnumbering declines 1.20 times on the BSE, and 1.24 times on the NSE. The volume in advancing issues was 87.7% (56.0%) on the BSE, and 85.5% (41.2%) on the NSE, while that in declining ones was 11.4% (42.5%) on the BSE, and 14.1% (58.2%) on the NSE.

The number of heavily traded stocks at 200-day highs went up from zero to two, while the number at 200-day lows dropped from five to three. The number at 5-day highs went up from 15 to 55, while the number of at 5-day lows dropped from 106 to 39. The 240 stocks averaged a gain of 1.29%.

The Nifty opened lower and fell to its session low by 1015. It then trended upwards for the rest of the day, closing near its best. The CNX Midcap followed a roughly similar course.

The indices have bounced back after breaching their intermediate downtrend triggers briefly. This makes the intermediate trend ambiguous for now.

A fall below the last minor bottoms would confirm an intermediate downtrend. These are at 16,547 for the Sensex, 4,913 for the Nifty and 6,597 for the CNX Midcap index. Similarly, a rally past the last minor tops would mean a continuing intermediate uptrend. The levels to be crossed are 17,086 for the Sensex, 5,066 for the Nifty and 6,886 for the Midcap.

Global markets are in a similar situation, hovering near their intermediate downtrend trigger levels.

The intermediate uptrend has been quite strong here as well as for global markets, and there is a possibility that a global bull market is on.

The next intermediate downtrend should settle the issue of whether a global bull market is starting.  A short and small downtrend would suggest that a bull market is on.

For the moment though, our market and most global markets are still in major (long-term) downtrends.

The major trends of HCL Technologies and Hind Zinc turned up, while that of IOC turned down yesterday.

The FIIs bought USD 46.2 million of stocks on Tuesday, while the MFs dumped USD 75.7 million. The FIIs are averaging daily sales of USD 19.2 million over the last five sessions, and the MFs are selling at a rate of USD 40.2 million.

Most global indices have managed to remain in intermediate uptrends, despite the recent declines. Most major trends are still down.

The Dow rose 66.20 points (0.52%) to 12,898.38, and the NASDAQ composite went up 1.58 points (0.06%) to 2,496.70.

Infosys was up 3.05% at USD 44.33, Satyam fell 0.76% to USD 25.95, Wipro gained 2.61% at USD 13.38, Tata Motors gained 0.31% at USD 16.04, ICICI Bank went up 1.96% to USD 43.28, HDFC Bank dropped 0.46% to USD 106.07, Dr Reddy gained 4.11% at USD 15.45, MTNL rose 2.47% to USD 4.97, Patni went up 5.59% to USD 13.42, Rediff.com lost 0.70% at USD 8.57 and Satyam Infoway went up 0.21% to USD 4.87.