Mumbai: Sustained purchases by domestic financial institutions in top heavyweights Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) helped the SENSEX extend its winning streak to the second straight session at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on May 14.

Few others like SBI, Satyam Computers, Ranbaxy Lab, Tisco and Grasim Ind too attracted fairly good buying support and scored impressive gains at close.

As a result, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index which opened marginally lower at 2959.51, later turned better and gradually moved upward to the intra-day high at 2997.64 before ending at 2993.94 as against yesterday's close of 2960.62, netting a rise of 33.32 points or 1.13 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index also finished 13.61 points higher at 1514.90 from previous close of 1501.29.

Brokers said Indian Financial Institutions (IFIs) led by Life Insurance Corporations (LIC) made heavy purchases in old economy counters, particularly HLL and RIL.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which have been continuous net buyer in the past five sessions, were selective buyers in a few blue-chip stocks.

Operators too have turned buyers and reportedly chased select software counters.

Second-line shares like Hexaware, Apollo Tyre, Max India, TVS Elec, Crompton Gr, Lupin Lab, JK Bank, Ind Overseas Bank and Federal Bank attracted heavy interest from operators.

However, MTNL, GACL, HPCL, Infosys Tech, ITC, Telco, BPCL and RCF suffered a moderate setback due to selling pressure.

PTI