MUMBAI, July 1: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) sensitive index today surpassed the important mark of 4,300 as pivotals firmed up smartly on the second consecutive day amidst heavy buying support from foreign institutional investors (FIIS), domestic institutional investors and speculators. After a subdued spell, share prices rallied during the mid-session on short covering coupled with fresh buying support.

The BSE sensitive index opened at 4263.11, surpassing the psychological barrier of 4300, touched the day's high of 4301.77. The sensex declined to touch the day's low of 4247.66 and later finished at 4300.86, with a net gain of 44.77 points compared to the previous level of 4256.09. Similarly, the BSE-100 index moved up further by 16.12 points to 1843.55.

Brokers said FIIs made considerable purchases in Tata Steel, Larsen, Hindustan Lever, HDFC, Pond's other index-based scrips. Domestic institutional investors and speculators also made some purchases in index-based scrips.

The rally was also due to heavy short covering ahead of the end of the settlement on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The market witnessed frenzied demand in almost all the counters in the specified group from both FIIs and local operators. The speculative activity later spread to secondary line shares as ones in the specified group were in short supply and the increased demand pushed up the B-2 group prices of a number of scrips to 52-week high levels. Cement shares were particularly in demand from the speculators in the changing market scenario as the cheaper valuations of these shares enticed buyers.

The total turnover recovered smartly to Rs 1290.66 crore. Reliance topped the list with a volume of Rs 278.61 crore, followed by ITC with Rs 258.16 crore, SBI Rs 158.69 crore, Tisco Rs 144.91 crore and HDFC Rs 73.44 crore. SBI gained by Rs 9.75 to Rs 350, Tisco by Rs 13.25 to Rs 204.50 and HDFC by Rs 239.25 to Rs 4322 on speculative support. ACC advanced further up by Rs 97.50 to Rs 1550, Bajaj Auto by Rs 9 to Rs 930, BHEL by Rs 13.75 to Rs 392.50, Colgate by Rs 6 to Rs 296 and Gujarat A Cement by Rs 7.50 to Rs 354. Reliance dropped by Rs 2.25 to Rs 369.50 and ITC by Rs 6.75 to Rs 566 on profit-taking.

On the NSE, share prices rose further on the last day of the current settlement following brisk speculative buying and closed with gains. The NSE-50 index closed at 1200.45, showing a good gain of 8.05. Similarly, the midcap index closed at 1174.70, disclosing a notable gain of 10.80. The total turnover was Rs 2,363.82 crore.

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