Mumbai: Equities staged a dramatic recovery at the fag end and select heavyweights even closed with smart gains, aiding the SENSEX to finish in positive territory in otherwise dull activity on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on September 24 on fairly heavy purchases by a leading domestic fund.

The Unit Trust of India (UTI) was believed to have made good purchases in select index-based stocks at the fag end.

The BSE benchmark 30-share Index that had fallen to the intra-day low at 2993.01, later bounced back during pre-close session to end at 3022.25 as against previous close of 3021.28, netting a minor gain of 0.97 point.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index, however, eased by 4.71 points to 1484.26 from previous close of 1488.97.

Though the market generally discounted the overnight meltdown in stocks on Wall Street, IT stocks suffered a sharp setback on selling by operators and retail investors.

The Dow Jones industrial average and the NASDAQ composite index on September 23 dropped sharply by about 113 points and 36 points respectively.

The London's FTSE-100 share Index also dipped by 3.1 per cent at 3739.4 as stocks reeled under pressure due to worries over the bleak economic outlook and possible war with Iraq.

PTI