On Thursday the Sensex opened at 3953.64 points, showing a 18-point gain over its Wednesday close of 3935.82. Also during the day the market saw the index touch a high of 3992.19, while the day's low was at 3941.85.

Refinery stocks were again in the limelight with Reliance, IOC, HPCL, BPCL and Cochin Refineries attracting huge buy orders from the operators. During the close of trading, at Rs 177.90, there were only buyers at the Reliance counter. According to a market source, ``the buying interest in the counter was prompted by market's expectation of around40 per cent jump in the company's first quarter net. It seems the market has taken a positive view of the company's upward revision in prices of its polyester and other intermediate products, although this being the fifth price hike by Reliance in the last couple of months.''

The total turnover on BSE on Thursday was at Rs 1242.77 crore. While the turnover in group A scrips was at Rs 1166.53 crore, the turnover figures in the B1 and B2 groups were at Rs 69.25 crore and Rs 5.19 crore, respectively. With an aggregate turnover of Rs 165.13 crore, Reliance recorded the highest turnover during the day. It was followed by Satyam at Rs 110.70 crore, SBI at Rs 102.99 crore, L&T at Rs 79.71 crore and Ranbaxy at Rs 62.60 crore.

Thursday's trading on BSE also saw ICICI rally in a major way to be frozen at Rs 74.05, up by Rs 5.45 over its Wednesday close of Rs 68.60.

The day's trading was also marked by institutional buying in select software and pharma counters. Bouyed by the government's decision to dilute itsstake in CMC Ltd from the present 51 per cent, the market players placed heavy orders in the counter. Towards the close of Wednesday's trading on the bourse, there were only buyers for the CMC scrip at Rs 396.85. At the RS Software counter also there were only buyers with the scrip frozen at its upper circuit level of Rs 195 against its Wednesday close of Rs 180.70. The DSQ Software counter also witnessed hectic activity on the bourse with the company announcing a lower net for fiscal 1999 due to huge provisioning. The scrip closed the day's trading at Rs compared to its previous close at Rs 251.

Heavy selling pressure was witnessed at the counters of Infosys Technologies and Satyam Computers. The offloading by the operators in the latter was the result of the RBI imposed ceiling on further FII buying in the company. While Infosys closed the day's trading down Rs 24.65 at Rs 3200.25, Satyam lost Rs 42.80 to close at Rs 1329.90.