The GDR markets also followed suit with the Skindia index trading at 587.16 points, registering a meagre gain of 0.08 per cent during mid-day session. Interestingly, the GDRs of Reliance and SBI remained unchanged till the fag end of the session at $ 6.05 and $ 8.80 respectively.

Market participants attributed the gains made to the initial euphoria on the lifting of sanctions and renewed interest at the commodity stocks which have a higher weightage in the index.

According to market sources, FIIs were reported to have placed buy orders at the counters of ICI Ltd, Pentafour Software, Bhel, PSI Data, Castrol, Telco, MTNL, Grasim and ACC. However, on the domestic front, UTI continued to be anet seller, with sales pressed at the counters of ITC and MTNL. While FIIs were net sellers on the BSE to the tune of Rs 12 crore, the net purchases of Rs 12 crore on the NSE balanced out the sales pressed at one bourse.

However, domestic institutions continued to be net sellers for the second consecutive day. FIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 13 crore.

``The index should continue to trade in the band of 2,900 to 3,200 points. There would be ample opportunities for sector and company specific stocks to be identified and traded on the basis of the attractive valuations available,'' explained Paresh Khandwala, director of Jayantilal Khandwala and Sons. While the upward march of Larsen & Toubro and Gujarat Ambuja was curtailed due to profit booking at higher levels, ICICI continued to move in the northward direction to close at Rs 51.10, registering a net gain of 6.56 per cent.

The positive impact of the global merger news continued to reflect on the prices of Ciba Speciality and Clariant, whichremained frozen for the second consecutive day, registering a further appreciation of over 8 per cent each to close at Rs 153.30 and Rs 250.60, respectively. Similarly, Colourchem also moved up to close at Rs 2,246 registering a net gain of 7.82 per cent.

Among the PSU stocks, VSNL was hammered by 4.26 per cent to close at Rs 681.15. Its GDR also l of 2.11 per cent to trade at $ 11.51. The GDRs are quoting at a premium of 39.81 per cent over its underlying stock.