Mumbai: Stocks bounced back with a vengeance lifting the SENSEX by about 51 points at close as foreign funds made fairly heavy purchases in the recently battered heavyweights on October 29 that failed to get any major impact of a marginal rate cut.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark 30-share index opened firm at 2,846.80 and gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high at 2,891.03 before ending at 2,885.23 as against October 28 close of 2,934.41, netting a rise of 50.82 points or 1.79 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 index spurted by 23.50 points to 1,437.14 from previous close of 1,413.64.

Brokers attributed fresh buying spree to hectic purchases by some foreign funds in Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), HLL and a few others rather than the reduction in the bank rate and cash reserve ratio by 25 basis point each, which is little lower than the market expectations of 50 basis point, by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during late morning session.

A leading US-based fund made heavy purchases in RIL stocks at the prevailing lower price levels, market sources said adding that initially the rally was ignited by reports that the company has struck one of the largest gas reserves in the country in Andhra Pradesh's Godavari basin.

Brokers termed the turn around as a relief rally, which was expected during the week after a continuous battering in the past several days saying, "the sudden heavy net investments by foreign funds boosted the morale of domestic investors.

Foreign funds also were net buyers in IT counters like NIIT, which initially suffered a sharp setback, Satyam Computers, Infosys Tech and others.

PTI