Indian stock markets remained strong for the third consecutive day on Friday.

The stock markets belled on an optimistic note following minor positive signals from the worldwide markets and surged further making some volatile moves and lastly shut the shop on a cheerful note.

Realty and banking scrips topped the positive charts.

The 30-share index Sensex and the broad-based Nifty delivered a small return of 17.43% and 18% respectively in 2010 as against 2009.

In 2009, the stock market witnessed massive rally with both Sensex and Nifty gaining returns more than 80%.

Mr. Shrikant Chouhan, senior vice president (Technical Research), Kotak Securities, stated, "This week saw market breaking out of the narrowest trading range by closing above the level of 6,025. Market conquered the level of 6,090, which fuelled further momentum and bullishness to the index. Market tested the level of 6,145-6,150 on higher side. On weekly basis, Market is still in ``Pull back`` mode with immediate resistance at 6,200 level. Closing above the level of 6,230 can take index to the fresh highs."

"For the starting year of decade 2,020, Nifty is expected to remain in consolidation and range bound trading phase for the first half year, second half to witness increased momentum. Traders and Investors should look for opportunity to buy in index heavy weights at each major support juncture - 5,750 and 5,550. Breakout buying should not be pursued aggressively," Mr. Chouhan added.

Finally, the BSE Sensex closed the year 2010 after gaining 120.02 points at 20,509.09 with 22 components in positive.

In the meantime, the Nifty grew by 32.65 points at 6,134.50 with 36 components registering growth.

The biggest gainers in the Sensex pack comprised RComm, which surged 4.99%, Bajaj Auto gained 4.37%, Reliance Energy zoomed 4.00%, JP Associates increased 2.97%, SBI climbed 2.24% and HDFC Bank was up by 1.91%.

In contrast, the top losers in the pack comprised Sterlite Industries, which dropped 0.98%, JSPL fell 0.79%, NTPC declined 0.64%, BHEL dipped 0.51%, Hero Honda rejected 0.29% and TCS was down by 0.24%.

The BSE Mid and small caps also remained positive and gained 2.48% and 3.16% respectively.

Among sectoral indices, the real estate index was up by 4.16%; the Consumer Durables index surged 3.88%; the Metal index shot up 3.14%; the Oil & Gas index declined 0.06%.

The overall breadth of the stock market remained positive as it saw 2,042 advancements as compared to 974 declinations.