MUMBAI, July 23: The sentiment improved further on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on good buying support by foriegn institutional investors (FIIs) coupled with local speculative buying. The sensex gained 65 points. The session started better and pivotals led by Reliance advanced further as the session progressed. Reliance Capital continued its upsurge on speculation of its takeover of Reliance power business.

The BSE sensitive index opened at 4204.83, touched the day's high of 4258, declined to the day's low of 4182.32 before closing at at 4251.13, with a hansome gain of 64.84 points compared to the previous level of 4186.29. The BSE-100 index moved up by 29.43 points to 1847.80 against the previous close of 1818.37.

Borkers said the operators generally welcomed the recommendations of the Varma Committee on the revised carry-forward trading. The sentiment was bosted following continued buying support by FIIs and speculative support due to the start of new account on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). FIIs made considerable purchases in Tisco, Castrol, Larsen, Colgate and others.

Reliance remained the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs 282.24 crore of the total volume of business of Rs 948.82 crore followed by Tata Steel of Rs 132.27 crore, SBI of Rs 123.76 crore, ITC of Rs 72.38 crore and Castrol of Rs 38.65 crore. Reliance spurted by Rs 12.75 to Rs 359.50, SBI rose by Rs 2.25 to Rs 329.50, Tata Steel by Rs 6.25 to Rs 215.75, ITC by Rs 5 to Rs 513.50 and Castrol by Rs 30.25 to Rs 679.25 on speculative buying.

The cash group also showed firm trend. Software shares like Tata Information, Infosys Technologies and Wipro scored impressive gains on good investment support. Cipla, Ingersoll, Hindustan Lever Chemicals and Otis also remained better.

On the NSE, share prices shot up sharply further on the first day of the current settlement on good support from foreign funds as well as local investors. The market showed a higher turnover of Rs 1,760.43 crore against Rs 1559.88 crore in the previous session. The NSE-50 index closed at 1200.70, displaying a notable gain of 27.45. The Midcap index settled at 1313.10, showing a smart rise of 37.50.

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