Day 1, 2010: Sensex ends higher, volumes disappoint

On the first session of the Year 2010, the Sensex closed higher and continued its uptrend for the second consecutive day. It closed above the 17,500 mark while the Nifty maintained the 5,200 level.

Nilesh Shah of Envision Capital said, "It is quite possible that we would probably might inch towards the levels of 5,500 on the Nifty over the next two-three months and obviously at that stage, the impact of the budget and basically the outlook on monsoons and things of that kind will continue to influence the direction of the markets." 

Positive global cues and buying across all the sectors helped the indices to remain positive throughout the session, despite volatility and low volumes.

The markets started the day on a positive note following good Asian cues. Among Asian markets, Nikkei rose 1% and Jakarta gained 1.6%. Shanghai, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted were up 0.24-0.8%. However, Hang Seng and Straits Times were marginally in the red. European markets were trading 0.7-1% higher and US index futures were up 0.6-1.1%, at the time of closing of Indian equities.

Cement, metal, infrastructure, banking, technology, select oil & gas and auto stocks witnessed buying interest while selling in few stocks like Reliance Industries, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Maruti, Hero Honda and Suzlon Energy limited the gains to major extent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 17,558.73, up 93.92 points or 0.54% and the 50-share NSE Nifty went up 0.6% or 31.15 points, to settle at 5,232.20. The Nifty January Future ended with over 10 points premium.