Mumbai: Led by the top heavyweight Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), select blue-chip stocks moved further upwards and the SENSEX extended its winning streak to sixth straight session in lacklustre activity on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on February 24 on selective buying by domestic funds.

The rally was mitigated substantially due to a slow-down in FII (Foreign Institutional Investors) activity. FIIs have made net investments of Rs 49 crore in the first four sessions of last week.

FIIs reportedly made small purchases in select key stocks like HLL and other old economy shares.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened firm at 3318.25 and rose the intra-day high of 3341.61 before ending past the 3320-resistance level at 3322.17 as against last Friday's close of 3307.20, netting a rise of 14.97 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index moved up by 5.16 points to 1641.99 from previous close of 1636.83.

The Petrochem giant RIL scored impressive gains on fairly heavy buying by domestic funds. Besides, other heavyweights like Grasim Ind, GACL, BSES, SBI, HLL and some others showed marked gains on buying by retail investors.

However, speculators were believed to have booked profits in IT counters. Key IT stocks like Infosys Tech and Satyam Computers, which attempted a rally initially, later met with a strong resistance and closed with moderate losses.

Several second-line counters witnessed good buying from operators and Indian Financial Institutions.

PTI