Mumbai: The SENSEX opened firm and showed signs of a recovery by improving further following a rally in key IT counters at early stages on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on April 17 on fresh purchases by foreign institutional investors (FIIs).

FIIs, which generally kept a low profile in the light of political uncertainty in the country, seemed to have turned active in response to a sharp rally on Wall Street on April 16 night.

The NASDAQ Composite Index spurted by about 63 points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished sharply up by about 208 points on April 16.

South East Asian markets also witnessed smart rally on April 17 morning with the Nikkei remarkably up by about 153 points and the HangSeng by 190.86 points during opening session on April 17 morning, dealers said.

Heavy-weighted counters Infosys Technologies and Satyam Computers were quoted substantially up on hectic buying by institutional investors.

The BSE Sensitive Index opened sharply up at 3,444.09 as against a close of 3,413.72 on April 16 and later rose further to a high of 3,458.79 before being quoted at 3,441.32 at 10:30 hours (IST).

PTI