Mumbai: Equities recovered their early losses and even posted moderate gains pushing the SENSEX up by about 16 points at close at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on April 4 on fresh buying support from operators coupled with consistent purchases by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs).

Overcoming early resistance as a result of a moderate setback on Wall Street on April3 due to disappointing economic reports and investors caution as US-led forces made their final push into Baghdad, heavyweight counters like Satyam Computers, RIL, SBI, HCL Tech, HPCL, Dr Reddy's Lab, Bajaj Auto, Telco, Tisco and several second-line counters including K-10 stocks attracted good buying interest.

Started on a weak note at 3145.00, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index later turned better and gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high at 3169.20 before ending at 3167.70 as against yesterday's close of 3151.16, a net gain of 16.54 points or 0.52 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index firmed up by 15.23 points to 1569.93 from previous close of 1554.70.

Stocks brokers said operators were seen making fairly heavy purchases in second-rung stocks like Himachal Futures, Silverline, GTL Ltd, Sterlite Optical, Pentamedia Graphic, Rolta and a few others.

Bank shares too attracted heavy buying support from investors and finished with remarkable gains.

However, Infosys Tech and HLL that have fairly high weightage in SENSEX, recorded marked falls.

PTI