Mumbai: The SENSEX opened firm on the back of a smart rally in old economy stocks at early stages on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on June 17 on fresh buying support by punters and retail investors.

The BSE Sensitive Index opened substantially higher at 3,350.03 as against the weekend close of 3,312.07 and later moved in a narrow range between 3,350.44 and 3,328.46 before being quoted at 3,341.77 at 10:30 hours (IST).

Enthused by the onset of favourable monsoon, speculators and investors made fairly good purchases in fertiliser shares on expectations of disinvestments in this sector also.

Investors have shifted their focus to small-priced second-line stocks without even considering their fundamentals, market sources said, adding "they have continued their buying in select key cyclicals also".

PTI