Mumbai: The SENSEX managed to end the week in positive territory, extending its gains marginally on the back of moderate rises in select key stocks during the four- session week on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

The week was marked by continuous profit booking by local investors in extremely dull activity after the Vikram Samvat 2059 commenced on a strong footing in a short session of Mahurat trading on November 4.

On a strong optimism about a short-term stocks rally with major developments like RIL's gas discovery in the previous week followed by favourable tax recommendations by the Kelkar task force on tax reforms on November 2, the SENSEX had risen by 1.25 per cent in a brief Muharat session. But, sustained profit booking by speculators and retail investors dragged stocks downwards trimming early gains.

Though satisfied over the Kelkar panel's recommendations for one-stroke cleaning up of all income-tax exemptions, significant reduction in tax rates and sweeping liberalisation of procedures, brokers seemed to be unsure whether government will accept the proposal.

Domestic funds led by the Unit Trust of India (UTI) also were believed to have booked profits at higher levels in several blue-chip stocks despite the fact that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) made net investments of Rs 147 crore in the first couple of days of the week.

The BSE barometer would have rallied further to its last week's upsurge but for marked falls in heavyweights like ITC, Bajaj Auto, HPCL, HLL, MTNL, ITC, Nestle, ICICI Bank and Ranbaxy Lab that prevented any major rise in the SENSEX.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index was trapped in a narrow range of 2,994.80 and 2,950.71 before ending the week at 2,956.84 as against last weekend's close of 2,950.58, netting a modest rise of 6.26 per cent.

PTI