Mumbai: Shares of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) hogged the limelight aiding the SENSEX to end in the positive territory in an otherwise depressed trend on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on February 1 on fairly good purchases by Indian Financial Institutions.

A smart rally in PSU shares like BHEL, HPCL, BPCL, HPCL, MTNL, Bharat Electricals, Indian Oil Corporation, IPCL and Shipping Corporation was attributed by dealers to the emphatic response to divestment of the government's 33.5 per cent equity stake in public sector oil retail company IBP.

Though some top heavyweights like Infosys Tech, Satyam Computers and HLL suffered moderate setbacks, the SENSEX derived strength from sharp gains in BHEL, HPCL, MTNL and SBI.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened firm at 3334.69 and later fluctuated in a range between 3356.05 and 3325.98 in keeping with a narrowly mixed trend, before ending at 3333.92 as against the January 31 close of 3311.03, netting a gain of 22.89 points. The broad-based BSE-100 Index improved by 10.35 10.34 points to 1601.61 from previous close of 1592.27.

Though Reliance Industries (RIL) has posted a 4.1 per cent drop in its net profit for third quarter, it was in keeping with the market expectations, market sources said, adding that heavy selling by local institutions in RIL scrip on January 31 affected the general trend.

PTI