The index opened on a strong note at 3,239.85 mirroring the optimism in the kerb deals on Wednesday. Mid-session, the Sensex breached the crucial benchmark of 3,300 points to touch 3,321.85 points. However, profit booking by domestic institutions led to a minor correction towards the last phase.Contrary to market expectations of a small reaction at the 3240 level, the upsurge broke this level and pushed the Sensex beyond another strong resistance level of 3290, indicating a bull orbit if the market remained firm above this level during the next settlement. On Thursday, operators went on making fresh commitments in spite of the a pproaching end of account on Friday providing signals of high badla rates atthe turn of the settlement. Scrips like M &, Bhel, Grasim, L&T, Ranbaxy and ICICI hit the upper-end of the circuit breaker after exausting the daily limits.On BSE, FIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 132 crore, while on NSE the net purchases of FIIs was totted at a high of Rs 48.35 crore. Domestic institutions, however, sold heavily on both the bourses, with their net sales pegged at Rs 4.5 crores on NSE.

The market was agog with rumours that FIIs like Jardine Fleming Brokerage, DSP Merill Lynch, Morgan Broking and James Capel had placed huge buy orders, especially at counters of MTNL, SBI, Bhel, Mahindra & Mahindra, ICICI Bank, ITC and Hindustan Lever. Domestic institutions were rumoured to have booked profits at the counters of Castrol, MTNL and SBI. However, none of these rumours could be confirmed.

According to market sources, the news of FII broking outfits have turned net buyers trickled down in the market during mid-session when many of these broking outfits reported huge cross and negotiateddeals on BSE. While James Capel reported 3-4 cross deals at the counters of Bata India, Larsen and MTNL, Morgan Broking reported deals at the counters of MTNL and Container Corporation.

"We have seen a different kind of a rally today, with a lot of institutional buying having been diverted to the frontline stocks. In fact, side counters like pharma and infotech registered a correction which is a positive signal," explained a veteran BSE broker, in the light of the strong upward march registered at counters like Reliance, SBI, BSES, Telco and Larsen.During the day, speculative favourites like Zee Telefilms, Satyam Computers, Pentafour Software and Tata Tea witnessed minor corrections on account of bull liquidation. While fresh buying by both foreign and domestic institutions provided the much-awaited support to the pivotals, technical analysts cited this as an opportunity for the index to create a new bottom of 3,200 points.

Pivotals continue to rally in kerb deals

Pivotals shot up further in kerbdeals, with news of FII purchases trickling down to the market. While ITC, Satyam, Bhel and Telco witnessed short positions at the end of the session on Thursday, this provided significant signals to the market that institutional purchases were centred around these counters. Pivotals were traded at a premium of over 2 per cent with ITC traded at Rs 827, SBI was quoted at Rs 175, Reliance at Rs 133, Satyam Computers at Rs 764 and Tisco at Rs 127.50. Interestingly, according to kerb operators, there was absolute absence of volumes as sentiments continued to become stronger, and operators refused to liquidate their positions.