Mumbai: Equities rallied smartly lifting the SENSEX by 59 points at close on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on February 17 as tension in the Gulf eased temporarily following UN inspectors denial of finding any concrete evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Encouraged by receding war fears, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) made all-round purchases in select key stocks like Satyam Computers, Infosys Technologies, Tisco, Telco, Zee Telefilms, ACC and some others.

Speculators and retail investors seemed to have made large commitments in a number of shares on strong expectations about a favourable budget in the light of reports that Finance Minister Jaswant Singh is likely to abolish dividend tax and surcharge on corporate tax in the forthcoming budget.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened remarkably higher at 3248.90 and gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high at 3287.01 before ending at 3282.45 as against last Friday's close of 3223.41, a net rise of 59.04 points or 1.83 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index shot up by 33.30 points to 1623.88 from previous close of 1590.58.

A strong rally on Wall Street last weekend also had a sentimental impact on the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained by 158.93 points and the Nasdaq Composite Index by 32.73 points last Friday.

The South East Asian markets also ruled firm in line with the New York stocks. The Hang Seng ended up by 181.92 points, the Nikkei by 69.97 points and Singapore ST by 27.71 points.

PTI