The Indian equity markets started the New Year on a strong note as both the BSE Sensex and NSE?s Nifty closed the day at their 19-month high. Sustained buying by institutions, especially domestic institutions aided the move. According to the data provided by the BSE, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net purchased stocks worth over Rs 2,300 crore while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers approximately at Rs 610 crore.

The day marked the beginning of the new trading timings as the exchanges opened 55 minutes earlier at 9 am on Monday, despite stiff opposition from a section of brokers.

About the trading timings starting earlier, Deven Choksey, MD of KR Choksey securities believes, ?There is not much difference noticed at the moment, just that we start an hour earlier. Slowly and steadily we will adjust with the new timing hours and some trading trend could emerge.?

The markets had opened the day on flat note on the back of weak cues from the Asian markets. However, stronger European markets spurred up activity and good news from key pivotals catalysed the movement. According to BSE data, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Steel contributed around 13 points each in the Sensex upmove.

The Sensex ended the day at 17,558.73 points gaining 93.92 points, or 0.54%, while the broader S&P CNX Nifty of NSE rose by 31.15 points, or 0.60%, to close the day at 5,232.20 points.

Mahindra & Mahindra announced that car sales had doubled in December and Tata Steel have raised the price of key products expecting stronger demand. Anita Gandhi, head of institutional business at Arihant Capital markets said, ?There was movement in the market after Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) said that they have raised Rs 2,675 crore through sale of 2.58 crore treasury stocks in the open market.?

Barring the oil & gas all the sectors in the BSE sectoral indices ended the day in the positive zone. Meanwhile elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong?s Hang Sang ended the day on flat note with 3,052.05 points gaining 0.04 points, while China?s Shanghai Se Composite IX was down by 33.38 points or 1.02% to close the day at 3,243.76 points. Cash volume at BSE stood at over Rs 6,500 crore while at NSE it was at approximately Rs 14,900 crore.

JSW Energy settles at Rs 100 on Day 1

The first listing of the year, JSW Energy closed the day with minimal gains despite making a smart opening on the exchanges on Monday as investors and traders chose to book profits.

Stock prices of JSW Energy Ltd at Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) closed at Rs 100.75 against its issue price of Rs 100 after it had opened the day at Rs 106, a 6% premium over the issue price. . Ambareesh Baliga, vice-president at Karvy tock broking is of the opinion that when the stock opened at Rs 106 several retail investors sold out to book profits. ?In the coming days, the price of the stock is likely to be under pressure due to its aggressive pricing are too high to be sustained,? Baliga adds. The stock touched the intra-day high of Rs 106.40 and low of Rs 99.90 before finally closing the day at Rs 100.75. Its IPO of 27 crore shares had closed on December 9, 2009, was subscribed 1.7 times.

The company is engaged in generation, transmission and trading of electricity and is eyeing electricity distribution.