MUMBAI: Benchmarks continued with their upward march Thursday on the last day of December F&O series. Analysts expect market to turn volatile as the session progresses.

“There could be a bit of extra volatility owing to the derivative settlement. The opening is likely to be a positive one, and the key indices could extend gains from the previous session.

The Nifty broke out of the 5970-6020 range to close above 6050. But, one needs to exercise some caution as the bulls might face resistance at higher levels.

The rangebound and light volume pattern of the last couple of weeks has been frustrating. Hopefully there will be some excitement before we bid farewell to 2010.

Oil companies will be in focus as the much-anticipated EGoM on diesel and LPG price hike has been postponed again,” said IIFL report.

At 10:05 am; Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was at 20344.14, up 88.11 points or 0.43 per cent. The 30-share index touched a high of 20364.93 and low of 20274.12 in trade so far.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was at 6079.90, up 19.55 points or 0.32 per cent. The broader index touched a high of 6087.40 and low of 6062.35 intraday.

BSE Midcap Index was up 0.34 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index rose 0.35 per cent.

Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Capital Good Index gained 0.71 per cent, BSE IT Index moved 0.63 per cent higher and BSE Auto Index advanced 0.47 per cent. BSE Oil&gas Index was down 0.03 per cent.

Suzlon Energy (2.03%), Tata Motors (1.10%), Punjab National Bank (1.07%), Wipro (1.02%) and Tata Steel (0.98%) were amongst the top Nifty gainers.

BPCL (-1.72%), Cairn India (-0.84%), ONGC (-0.83%), Reliance Power (-0.72%) and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (-0.71%) led the losers pack.