Mumbai: Powered by a strong rally in Reliance Industries (RIL) and Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL), the SENSEX surged up sharply at early stages after opening steady on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on emergence of buying from speculators and some purchases by institutional investors.

The BSE sensitive index opened fractionally up at 3,463.29 as against the close of 3,462.99 on April 3 and later rallied smartly to a high of 3,503.86 before being quoted at 3,500.47 at 10:30 hours (IST).

Market sources attributed the renewed support to reports that RIL would be able to participate in the bidding process of Indian Petrochemical Corporation Ltd (IPCL).

They also said that Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and local funds were believed to have been making good fairly good investments at lower levels in HLL, which had been under pressure for the past couple of weeks.

The market, however, 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.

PTI