Mumbai: Buoyed by excellent second quarter working and the company's discovery of largest ever natural gas reserves in the country, RIL shares rallied sharply aiding the SENSEX to recover its last week's losses by 2.61 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in the week.

After a sharp setback on October 28, RIL flared up by 15 per cent over the week on news that the company has struck one of the largest gas reserve in Krishna-Godavari basin of Andhra Pradesh that followed the company's announcement of a growth of 25.09 per cent in net profits for the second quarter, which is substantially higher than the market projections.

The sentiment was boosted further on strong performance by other heavyweights Telco, Tisco, HPCL, Bajaj Auto and MTNL, Infosys Technologies and Satyam Computers.

Foreign funds once again have turned net buyers after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut the bank rate and cash reserve ratio by 25 basis point each on October 29.

While Telco and Tisco attracted brisk activity on announcements of impressive working results for the second quarter, the oil PSU stock HPCL, which met resistance as a result of negative statements by Defence Minister George Fernandes on the Centre's disinvestment programme, later made a strong turnaround on announcement of a hefty growth of 225 per cent in the net profits for Q2.

PTI