Mumbai: Led by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), select heavyweight counters rallied smartly lifting the SENSEX by about 50 points at close on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on April 4 on emergence of buying support.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which had slowed down activity in the last couple of weeks, reportedly made fairly heavy purchases in key stocks like RIL, Hindustan Lever Ltd, Infosys Technologies and Satyam Computers.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened slightly up at 3463.29 and later surged up to the intra-day high at 3529.02 before ending at 3512.55 as against April 3 close of 3462.99, a net rise of 49.56 points or 1.43 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index also gained by 30.77 points to close at 1748.31 from previous close of 1717.54.

Attributing the revival in interest to reports that RIL would be able to participate in the bidding process of Indian Petrochemical Corporation Ltd (IPCL), market sources said institutional investors and speculators were believed to be heavy buyers in HLL and few other stocks, at its lower price levels, which had been under pressure for the past two weeks.

The market also discounted a fresh slide in New York stocks that pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ Composite Index down by about 115 points and 20 points respectively on April 3 night.

However, several second-rung counters recorded moderate losses due to fresh selling by retail investors.

PTI