Mumbai: The SENSEX opened on a firm note and later surged up further during opening session, in line with a smart rally in equities on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on February 28 on all-round buying support.

Terming the upsurge as a pre-Budget rally, brokers also attributed buying by speculators to the first day of trading in derivatives segment.

The BSE sensitive index opened strong at 3,294.60 as against February 27 close of 3,277.34 and later rallied past 3,300-mark to a high of 3,309.77, before being quoted at 3,308.66 at 10.30 am (IST).

Domestic institutions led by the Unit Trust of India (UTI), which reportedly cornered shares of select software counters, were believed to be buyers in several key stocks.

Buying was centred more in Information Technology (IT) and public sector unit (PSU) stocks, brokers said adding that investors are expecting some sops for these sectors in the budget to be presented during the day.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones industrial average and the NASDAQ composite index shot up by 78 points and 20 points on February 27 respectively.

Index-based shares like Infosys Tech, Satyam Computers, HCL Tech, HPCL, HLL, Grasim Ind, L&T, MTNL, RIL, Telco and Tisco were quoted remarkably higher on fresh buying.

PTI