Mumbai: The SENSEX opened moderately higher and rallied further during morning trading in line with fresh gains in select heavy weighted counters on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on May 21, on continued buying by operators.

The BSE sensitive index opened up at 3,068.12 as against May 20 close of 3,062.98 and later firmed up to a high of 3,081.72 before being quoted 3,974.22 at 10.30 am (IST).

Bank as well as software stocks were in keen demand from speculators. IT bellwether Infosys Tech, Satyam Computers and SBI that have fairly high weightage in the SENSEX, were quoted remarkably higher on investors buying.

Brokers said the market has turned operator-driven with institutional investors slowing down their activity during early stages of the session.

PTI