The Sensex opened 73 points higher at 9,720 on the first trading day of the New Year.

The index moved in a range of 210 points between 9,712 (low) and 9,922 (high) before finally settling with a gain of 256 points at 9,903. All the sectoral indices were up today.The market breadth was positive - out of 2,560 stocks traded, 2,001 advanced, 493 declined and 66 were unchanged today. The NSE Nifty ended with a gain of 74 points at 3,033.

THE MOVERS…

Reliance Communication zoomed 8% to Rs 245. Tata Motors soared 7.5% to Rs 171. Satyam Surged 7.2% to Rs 182.Wipro was up 6.2% at Rs 248, while Larsen & Toubro gained 6.1% to Rs 822.

Sterlite and Reliance Infrastructure moved up 5.7% each to Rs 276 and Rs 612, respectively. Maruti advanced 5.6% to Rs 549.
Tata Steel and Jaiprakash Associates were up 5.5% each to Rs 229 and Rs 87, respectively.

Hindalco closed at Rs 54 - up nearly 5%. Tata Power advanced 4.7% to Rs 784. TCS and ACC gained around 3.8% each to Rs 497 and Rs 496, respectively.ICICI Bank and DLF were up 3.5% each at Rs 464 and Rs 292, respectively. BHEL and Mahindra & Mahindra added 2.8% each to Rs 1,401 and Rs 283, respectively. Infosys, ONGC and SBI were the other prominent gainers today.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Ranbaxy declined 1% to Rs 250. ITC was down marginally at Rs 171.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Satyam topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 231.57 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 148.82 crore), Reliance Communication (Rs 136.18 crore), Reliance Petroleum (Rs 113.18 crore) and Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 108.61 crore).

Unitech led the volume chart with trades of around 1.98 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.84 crore), Suzlon (1.49 crore), Satyam (1.30 crore) and Reliance Petroleum (1.25 crore).