Mumbai: A sharp rally in shares of public sector undertakings (PSUs) aided the depressed SENSEX to score impressive gains at close in an otherwise lacklustre activity on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on April 1 following hectic buying support by foreign institutional investors (FIIs).

However, retail investors and speculators made cautious deals, generally selling off heavily in IT sector amidst speculation that there would be a marked fall in growth rate of IT bellwether Infosys Technologies for fourth quarter, ahead of the company's board meeting on April 10 to announce annual results.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened firm at 3,482.94 and later fluctuated in a small range between 3,519.32 and 3,482.94 before ending at 3,500.18 as against a close of 3,469.35 on March 29, netting a rise of 30.83 points.

Stock brokers attributed narrow movements of the SENSEX to a sharp setback in IT heavyweights.

The broad-based BSE1-100 Index also firmed up by 21.20 points to 1,737.48 from previous close of 1,716.28.

Discounting a sharp upsurge in PSU stocks, speculators and retail buyers expressed disappointment over introduction of the new T+3 settlement system on the BSE by remaining more or less silent, which affected the volume.

Anticipating good returns in the light of hopes of speedy disinvestments in the PSU sector, FIIs which had slowed down activity and were net sellers for the past couple of weeks, made fairly good purchases in old economy stocks like BHEL, HPCL, BPCL, MTNL, IPCL, IOC and ONGC, dealers said.

PTI