Mumbai: The SENSEX opened better and later rallied smartly in keeping with a strong turnaround in key counters at early stages on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on March 5 on emergence of support from investors.

The BSE sensitive index opened remarkably up at 3,655.08 over close of 3,642.58 on March 4 and later surged up to a high of 3,692.53 before being quoted at 3,685.19 at 10:30 hours (IST).

The upturn was largely attributed to another sharp rise in values on Wall Street on March 4.

Following up last week’s record-setting rally with the second-biggest gain of the year, the Dow Jones industrial average flared up by about 217 points and the NASDAQ composite index, which increased more than 4 per cent on March 1, also spurted by 56.59 points.

Index heavyweights like HPCL, HLL, Infosys Tech, Satyam Computer, Zee Telefilms, Grasim and HCL Techno showed handsome gains at the initial stages.

PTI