Oil prices remained the culprit last week, too, as it bled the bourses around the globe. Along with this, corporate earnings, which missed estimates also made the markets dip. Nifty has immediate support at 7350 and 7280, movements below it can cause further weakness. Resistance for the Nifty is seen at 7500, 7550 and 7633 levels; chances to move up these levels are very remote.

According to global performance management company, Nielsen, India may continue in the global confidence index for the quarter at 131 points, same as the previous quarter. It may be followed by Philippines (117), Indonesia (115) and Thailand (114). Here, the baseline is 100, which above and below indicates optimism and pessimism. Chinese score in the index was at 107 followed by UK (101) and US (100). The core sector data for December stood at 0.9 per cent, compared to a decline of 1.3 per cent, in the previous month. The uplift in the data was due to the good numbers from coal, cement and fertilizers. The April to December growth was at 1.9 per cent compared to 5.7 per cent, in the same period last year. But the current month crude and natural was low. The sector which consists of eight core industries has 38 per cent weightage in IIP.

Coal production was up 6.1 per cent against 3.5 per cent in November. Cement posted a better growth of 3.2 per cent against a decline of 1.8 per cent in the previous month. Steel production was down around 4.4 per cent in December.