Mumbai: Led by Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL), key counters rallied smartly lifting the SENSEX up by over 45 points at close on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on August 16 on hectic buying support by speculators and domestic funds.

HLL was the star performer, scoring impressive gains on reports that the company has cleared its proposal of giving a bonus debenture of Rs 6 at the coupon rate of nine per cent per annum and redeembale within 18 months, for every paid-up share, market sources said.

Brokers also attributed buying in HLL to good monsoon in the Northern states saying that Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) as well as local institutions made hectic purchases at the prevailing attractive price level.

The SENSEX was well supported by a smart rise in other heavyweights like RIL, Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computers, MTNL, L&T, ITC and HCL Tech.

A two-session winning streak on Wall Street also aided the sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 260 points on Aug 14 and 74.83 points on Aug 15 while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose by about 75 points two sessions.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened on a firm note at 3031.24 and gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high at 3070.86 before ending at 3065.90 as against August 14 close of 3020.70, netting a rise of 45.20 points or 1.50 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index shot up by 13.46 points to 1540.61 from previous close of 1527.15.

Meanwhile, the volume of business touched a nine-month low at 814.58 crore.

PTI