Mumbai: Led by HLL and ITC, old economy shares continued their upward march on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on February 18 following good buying support from speculators as well as institutional investors, pushing the SENSEX up by 31.91 points to 3633.93.

Sharp gains in the fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) stocks like HLL and ITC were responsible for the smart rise in the SENSEX.

Elsewhere, India pharma-giant, Ranbaxy Labs, was the most sought after stock on reports that the company has received manufacturing and marketing approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for Cefuroxime Axetil, sending the share price to close in the 10 per cent upper price band.

Media-giant, Zee Telfilms also attracted brisk buying support from speculators as well as foreign funds and hit the 10 per cent upper circuit filter at close.

However, new economy counters exhibited a mixed pattern of trading on alternate bouts of buying and selling. Meanwhile, at the overseas front, the tech-heavy NASDAQ composite index was down by 38.18 points last weekend.

Reflecting the upbeat mood, the BSE-30 share sensitive index opened firm at 3611.32 and moved in a range of 3651.02 and 3586.78 before finishing at 3633.93, a rise of 0.89 per cent. The BSE-100 index also improved further by 8.15 points to 1761.82 from previous close of 1753.67.

Banking sector, mainly private, also found followers on news that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has hiked the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit to 49 per cent from 20 per cent earlier.

PTI