Mumbai: Well supported by a fresh rally in cement and select PSU stocks, the SENSEX ended with a rise of about 11 points in narrow movements on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on May 13 on consistent purchases by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and some buying by speculators.

Cement stocks like ACC, Grasim Ind, GACL and L&T which have fairly good weightage in the index, remained in fore-front scoring handsome gains on the back of fresh purchases by FIIs which, after a long period of slowdown in activity, have made net investments of Rs 135 crore between May 6 and 9.

Bullishness in cement sector was attributed to reports of encouraging performance by cement companies in April following continued demand from housing besides growing infrastructure activity such as roads adding to the robust growth.

The BSE benchmark 30-share Index opened marginally up at 3,436.87 and later improved further to the intra-day high of 3,446.51 before ending at 3,442.49 as against a close of 3,431.32 on May 10, netting a gain of 11.17 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index moved up by 5.54 points to 1,717.27 from previous close of 1,711.73.

Though key IT stocks finished with minor gains, generally software stocks were under pressure due to fresh slide in the NASDAQ Composite Index by about 50 points and the by over 98 points in the Dow Jones Industrial Average last weekend.

The market seemed to be encouraged following reports about reshuffle in Union Cabinet indicating a change of prominent Cabinet ministers including the Finance Minister.

PTI