Mumbai: Powered by a smart rally in Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and other heavyweights, the SENSEX that opened moderately up, later rallied smartly at early stages on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on July 8 on fairly heavy purchases by institutional investors as also speculators.

Stockbrokers said the market had already discounted the adverse factor of Reliance patriarch Dhirubhai Ambani's death and shares of RIL met with hectic buying from domestic institutions as well as retail investors.

The BSE observed two minutes silence at 11 am (IST) to pay homage to Dhirubhai Ambani.

IT counters too were in keen demand prompted by last weekend's rally on Wall Street that lifted the NASDAQ Composite Index by about 68 points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average by about 325 points.

PTI