Mumbai: The SENSEX opened on a promising note and later rallied smartly in line with a positive turn in stocks, particularly IT shares after Satyam Computers came out with fourth quarter results, during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on April 24 on fresh buying support.

Attributing the rally to Satyam's announcement of fourth quarter results in keeping with the market expectations, brokers said investors seemed to be satisfied with the six to seven per cent guidance for first quarter of the fiscal 2003-04.

IT major's announcement prompted fresh buying interest in the market, but operators were seen winding up positions in view of last day of the futures contract for the April series.

The BSE sensitive index opened moderately up at 2,951.09 as against April 23 close of 2,947.33 and later fluctuated irregularly in range between 2,970.46 and 2,947.85 on alternate bouts of buying and selling, before being quoted at 2,958.30 at 10.30 am (IST).

The sentiment was also aided by continued up trend on Wall Street on April 23 night. The Dow Jones industrial average added 30.67 points and the NASDAQ composite index gained 14.80 points.

PTI