The new year started on a positive note for Indian stock markets with a key index scaling an all-time high on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) during early hours of trading Monday, but slipping back on profit taking.

The sensitive index (Sensex) of BSE opened the first trading session of 2006 at 9,422.49 points, against the previous session's close at 9,397.93 points, and soon scaled to an all-time intra-day high of 9,457.09 points.

Soon after, volatility set in and the key index ended slightly lower at 9,390.14 points to log a loss of 7.79 points or 0.08 percent over the previous close. In the interim, the index also hit the day's low of 9,366.09 points.

While 20 shares comprising the key index registered declines, 10 managed to end the day higher.

"The losses today (Monday) had more to do with the liquidity in the system and the profit taking after a long bout of sustained gains in the last few trading sessions of the previous year," an analyst said.

"Otherwise, the mood of the market continued to be positive, with some amount of caution on any sudden spurts," said the analyst who is with a leading brokerage here.

Within the Sensex scrips, ICICI Bank, Hindalco, Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Maruti Udyog and Reliance Energy were among the top gainers, while Tata Motors, Bharti Televentures, Hero Honda, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and Grasim ended lower.