The Sensex began the year on a bouyant note by opening with a positive gap of 24 points at 9422. The index soon scaled to touch a new intra-day lifetime peak of 9457.
However, the index paused there, and began to exhibit range-bound movement. Thereafter, some selling pressure in select auto, technology and FCMG stocks saw the index shed all its gains and slip into the negative zone to touch a low of 9366 - down 91 points from its peak.
The Sensex finally closed the first trading day of 2006 with marginal losses of eight points at 9390.
ICICI Bank up 2.1% (Rs 12) at Rs 597 was the major gainer among the Sensex stocks. Hindalco at Rs 146, HDFC Bank at Rs 713, Maruti at Rs 645 and Ranbaxy at Rs 365
Reliance Industries touched a new lifetime high of Rs902, before settling 1% gain at Rs 899. Reliance Energy was up 1.2% at Rs 612.
ONGC gained 1.5% at Rs 1,193.
Tata Motors led the losers list, with losses of 2% at Rs 639. Bharti Tele shed 1.8% at Rs 340 followed by Dr.Reddy's at Rs 963 and Hero Honda at Rs 846, down 1.6% each.
HLL at Rs 195, ITC at Rs 141, Grasim at Rs 1,376 and NTPC at Rs 111, declined 1% each.
Infosys at Rs 2,979, Satyam at Rs 731, TCS at Rs 1,690 and Wipro at Rs 461 declined less than 1% each.



