Indian Stock Markets were trading flat at 10.40 am IST. NSE Nifty touched an intraday high and low of 3062 and 3021. BSE Sensex touched a high of 9991 during early trades but slipped to 9863 due to selling pressure in many index stocks.

On first trading day of year 2009, the volumes were lower. Market turnover was lowest since April, 2007.

Among major gainers were SBI, ABB, DLF, HCL Tech, HDFC, Reliance Communications, Reliance Power, GAIL, SAIL, PNB, ITC and ICICI Bank.

Among losers were Satyam, Maruti Suzuki, Wipro, Ranbaxy Labs, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, ACC, Sterlite, ONGC, M&M, Tata Power and Grasim.

Reliance Communications has started nationwide GSM service. The company plans to launch competitive plans to add more customers. Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, BSNL and Tata Indicom are main rivals in the telecom sector. Many new companies have got spectrum and will start new services in India. Technical analysts are suggesting Buy rating for Reliance Communications as the company’s revenue are expected to grow nicely in coming quarters.

Among Asian markets, Straits Times was up by 38 points. KOSPI was trading marignally higher while Shanghai Composite was marginally lower.