Mumbai: The SENSEX overcame early resistance and ended up by about 26 points on the back of a remarkable turnaround in heavyweights like Hindustan Lever, Infosys Tech, ITC and Reliance Industries on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on April 22 on buying by domestic as well as foreign funds.

Speculators and retail investors, however, were cautious in view of fresh violence in Gujarat and political uncertainty with Parliament adjourned for the sixth day in a row.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened steady at 3,364.18 and later moved downwards to the intra-day low at 3,332.74. It later recovered smartly to close at 3,390.25 as against a close of 3,364.40 on April 19, netting a rise of 25.85 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index also improved by 4.06 points to 1,689.70 from previous close of 1,685.64.

Market sources said that operators were worried over continued political deadlock over Gujarat issue with Opposition forcing adjournment of both Houses for the sixth day but found solace in reports that the Deputy Speaker P M Sayeed would give his ruling on April 23 on demand for a censure discussion under Rule 184 in the House.

Though losses outnumbered gains by 105 to 58 in the specified group, the SENSEX posted gains on the strength of a smart rally in the heavy-weighted counters, which attracted good enquiries reportedly from local and foreign funds.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) that were net sellers in the last week, were believed to have made net purchases in key IT counters and select old economy counters.

PTI