``ITC provided the trigger point to the market,'' said Neel Dalal, a BSE broker. ``Today's recovery shows a technical mirror image, which is a rare event and assures enough scope for the index to rebound from the 2,900 levels back to 4,200 point level,'' he added.

While technical analysts attributed the recovery to the mirror-image effect at the ITC counter, market observers explain that the sharp jump was merely supported by rumours.

Interestingly, a leading Indian brokerage house was reported to have erroneously punched a purchase order of 3 lakh shares of ITC at Rs 725, premium of over 3 per cent to the prevailing market average price of Rs 705. The actual orderwas only for 30,000 shares at the average market price.The counter registered a single trade of Rs 725 at about 11.50 am. However, when the market got the wind of the mistake conducted and action was taken by the exchange, the stock witnessed trades at realistic levels of Rs 705 and Rs 710.

In the final countdown, the stock closed at Rs 705 on the BSE and Rs 707.95 on the NSE, with a phenomenal volume of over 1 crore shares on both the exchanges. Interestingly, the long positions at the ITC counter on Friday evening on the BSE stood at a high of 3.97 lakh shares, registering a net long position rise of 30,000 shares. The short position was marked at 1.69 lakh shares.

It is learnt that FIIs like SSKI, Morgan Broking and James Capel played a significant role in the rally witnessed at the counter. The stock was traded at a premium of over 30 per cent at the GDR market at $ 21.68. Rumours of UTI having sold its stake to BAT and the excise policy in favour of ITC added fuel to the rally.

In an unusualdevelopment, both domestic and FIIs were net buyers on the local bourses. While the gross institutional positions have increased from a low of Rs 90 crore on Thursday to a high of Rs 160 crore, the net purchase stood at Rs 30 crore, with over Rs 28 crore worth of net purchase by FIIs.``The gross purchase is not so significant as the ratio,'' said Arun Kejriwal of Woodstock Securities, in the light of the sharp increase in the net FII purchases on the local bourses.

It should be recalled that after a period of over three years, the index has registered a positive move on December 4. In 1996, both the local and GDR market indices recorded new lows on the same day.