Sensex holds on to early gains; banks, tech, oil & gas up

The Sensex maintained its uptrend amid choppy trade, supported by major sectors like banks, technology, auto, metals and oil & gas. Even major Asian markets like Shanghai, Hang Seng and Nikkei continued to trade higher with 0.4-0.8% gains. The Sensex was up 88 points at 15,631.93 and the Nifty jumped 26 points to 4,671.95.

This definitely isn't cheering up experts for the while. Sudarshan Sukhani of s2analytics.com is not bullish on the market. Considering it is a new settlement period (first day of Januray series), Sukhani advised traders to enter the market only towards the afternoon, when the choppiness recedes a bit.

Shares of country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank bounced back after last three-day fall, rising 1.4%. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries too turned positive with mild gains.

Frontrunners like HDFC, TCS, Tata Motors and SBI too were up 0.9-1.6%. Among others, Infosys, ITC, Bharti, M&M, HDFC Bank, ONGC, Hero Motocorp, Tata Steel and Wipro gained 0.3-0.6%.

However, shares L&T, NTPC and HUL turned negative, falling 0.4%. Bajaj Auto topped the selling list, losing 1%.

At 9:19 hours IST : Sensex rebounds; ICICI Bank, Bharti, SBI lead

The Sensex rebounded after a fall in previous three sessions, opening with a 50 points gap up on the last session of year 2011. It was aided by positive global cues post bullish US housing and employment data. Major Asian markets like Shanghai, Nikkei and Hang Seng were up 0.4-0.8%.

The Sensex was up 50 points at 15,594.16 and the Nifty went up 16 points to 4,662.10.

Shares of ICICI Bank, L&T, SBI, Infosys, Reliance, ONGC, Maruti Suzuki, Ranbaxy, Tata Motors, JP Associates, BHEL and Bharti Airtel were leading the markets.

However, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Jindal Steel and Sun Pharma were down.

The CNX Midcap rose 29 points to 6,107. The market breadth too was positive; about two shares advanced for every share falling on the National Stock Exchange.

In the second line shares, GTL shot up 4% after the board members approved corporate debt restructuring plan. GTL Infra gained 2%.

Godrej Properties rallied 2% as the company sold 49% stake in arm developing Gurgaon project to SUN-Apollo.

Firstsource, PFC, Hotel Leela, Jyothy Labs, GVK Power, IVRCL, Yes Bank, Shree Renuka, Bajaj Hindusthan, Balrampur Chini and REC gained 1-4%.

Jaypee Infra, IFCI and GMR Infra slipped 1-2%.