Markets gain for the third straight day

The Indian bourses continued their winning run for the third straight day. The Sensex opened on a firm note at 17,556 tracking strong global cues.

The US markets closed in green on the first trading day of 2010 ,on the back of a spate of deals, soaring commodities and strong manufacturing data.The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.5% at 10,584 and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 1.7%.

The BSE benchmark index exhibited strong movement for most part of the trading day. The index touched a high of 17,730,
and finally ended firm at 17,686, up 127 points. The index gained 2% or 342 points in the last three days. The NSE Nifty closed at 5,278, up 48 points.

The Asian markets also settled on a firm note .The Hang Seng added 2% and the Jakarta Composite Index was up 1.16%.

The market breadth was fairly positive, out of 2,962 shares traded, 1,768 advanced and 1,119 declined on the BSE.

The Midcap and the small cap indices ended 1% higher at 6,898 and 8,564, respectively.

INDEX MOVERS...

Hindalco zoomed 7% to Rs 175. Jaiprakash Associates advanced 6% to Rs 163 and Sterlite Industries added 4.5% at Rs 915, respectively.

Reliance Communications, Grasim Industries, Sun Pharmaceuticals and Tata Steel were up 2-3% each.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Maruti was the major loser on the Sensex, down 2% at Rs 1,515 and Tata Motors shed 2% to Rs 810.

ACC, NTPC and Reliance Industries were the other losers on the index.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

JSW Energy topped the value chart on the BSE with a turnover of Rs 353.44 crore. It was followed by Godrej Properties (Rs 290.11 crore), Satyam Computers (Rs 230.23 crore), NALCO (Rs 157.86 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 144.76 crore).

Kaashyap Technologies led the volume chart on the BSE with trades of 56.49 million shares on the BSE. It was followed by JSW Energy (32.35 million), Satyam Computer (21.88 million), Cals Refineries (20.41 million) and NHPC (16.67 million).