Mumbai: Majority of heavy weighted counters rallied smartly aiding the SENSEX to extend its winning streak to straight third week jumping by another 1.99 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on heavy purchases by foreign funds as well as speculators.

Domestic operators were engaged in hectic short covering in key blue-chip counters on the last day of the week, driving the SENSEX past 3,180-level, considered to be a resistance.

Though, the weekend rally has created strong optimism about upward movements, analysts were hesitant to subscribe to the view for the fact that nervous investors might book profits at higher levels during next week.

The BSE barometer has rallied on the back of smart gains in 19 index-based count further by 16.22 points to close at 1,580.55 from previous weekend's close of 1,564.33.

The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 were quoted marginally up at 377.70 and 129.63 at the weekend compared with last weekend's close of 375.94 and 129.00 respectively.

The BSE-500 Index edged up by 2.76 points to finish the week at 1,126.92 from last weekend's close of 1,124.16 and the Dollex-30 ended the week sharply higher at 538.40 from last weekend's close of 527.79.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the S&P CNX Nifty and the S&P CNX Defty rose by 15.40 points and 11.00 points to end the week at 1,010.60 and 721.55 as against previous weekend's close of 995.20 and 710.55 respectively. However, the CNX Nifty Junior finished substantially lower at 1,452.60 from 1,483.40 at the last weekend.

IPCL also suffered a sharp setback falling by 37.57 per cent over the week after the buy-back offer by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) was oversubscribed by nearly 76 per cent followed by RIL announcement that the company would return shares which it has not accepted in the open offer.

The volume of business on the BSE was relatively high at Rs 6,497 crore and on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Rs 13,208 crore during the week compared to last week's turnover of Rs 6,075 crore and Rs 11,903 crore respectively.

During the week, the BSE benchmark 30-share index moved in a narrow range for the most part of the week before rising to a high of 3,182.53 on the last day. It ended the week at 3,181.23 as against last weekend's close of 3,119.18, a net gain of 62.05 points. The broad-based BSE-100 index firmed up further by 16.22 points to close at 1,580.55 from previous weekend's close of 1,564.33.

PTI