Mumbai: Equities continued their upward march aiding the SENSEX to extend its winning streak to third straight session at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on March 21 on selective buying support from operators and retail investors.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which seemed to have slowed down activity, reportedly made small purchases in select key counters.

The BSE barometer has gained over 115 points in the successive three sessions.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened on a promising note at 3195.66 and later fluctuated in a narrow range between 3209.46 and 3179.79 before ending at 3200.15 as against yesterday's close of 3192.93, netting a rise of 7.22 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index improved by 5.73 points to 1578.10 from previous close of 1572.37.

Attributing fresh buying, particularly by retailers, to the two-session settlement as a result of a decision by the exchange authorities to keep the market open for trading on Saturday (Mar 22), brokers said the extension of settlement period by a day has provided retail investors an opportunity to push the market higher and take benefit the next day. The BSE will be open for trading between 11 am and 1 pm on March 22.

Operators were believed to have accumulated shares of blue-chip counters like HLL, Infosys Tech, Satyam Computers, Grasim Ind, SBI, HCL Tech, Dr Reddy's Lab, Cipla and ACC.

Meanwhile, stock markets world-over witnessed lacklustre activity in view of the US- led war on Iraq and oil prices edged higher as traders turn cautious on the possibility that the US-led war could last longer.

PTI