Mumbai: The SENSEX notched up yet another gain of 8.84 points to close at 2975.47 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on May 5, led by a smart rally in Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) counters that helped share values to make a further headway on sustained buying support.

The rally was not confined merely to select key counters, but percolated to most of the second-line old as well as new economy shares, particularly non-index based, that registered gains on renewed buying enquiries, a dealer said.

Positive overseas advices where the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index shot up by 128.43 points and 30.32 points on May 2, partly boosted market sentiment, he added.

Lessening of cross-border tensions following Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee kicking off a fresh peace initiative with Pakistan also aided a positive outlook for the market.

The BSE-30 share index opened higher at 2977.47 as against last Friday's close of 2966.63 and moved in a narrow range of 2988.69 and 2967.88 before concluding at 2975.47, a net gain of 0.30 per cent.

The BSE-100 index also rose by 11.94 points to end at 1491.33 from previous close of 1479.39.

Banking stocks, mainly public sector, were in limelight on expectation of better working results due to the recent interest rate cuts.

Select Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) shares also attracted good investment buying and ended with smart gains.

PTI