Mumbai: Led by Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL), select old economy stocks continued their upward march, aiding the SENSEX to end 34 points higher on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on June 9 on reports of the monsoon hitting Kerala and sustained investments by foreign funds.

Retail investors and speculators welcomed the news of arrival of South West monsoon that hit Kerala on June 8 by enlarging commitments in several counters, while foreign institutional investors (FIIs), which have been making heavy net purchases since the past couple of weeks, reportedly made fresh investments in key stocks.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened on a promising note at 3,304.65 and gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high at 3,351.36 before ending at 3,337.31 as against June 6 close of 3,303.24, a net gain of 34.07 points or 1.03 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 index moved up by 6.19 points to nearly one-year high at 1,697.95 from previous close of 1,691.76.

Bulls tightened their grip on the market as Kerala recorded fairly good rainfall on June 8, indicating normal monsoon delay of which had caused some concern in the markets during last week.

Heavyweight counters like HLL, ACC, BHEL, BSES, CIPLA, HDFC, HPCL, Castrol, Hero Honda, Hindalco, ITC, L&T, Ranbaxy Lab and Telco showed sharp gains on heavy buying support.

However, RIL, SBI, Satyam Computers, Dr Reddy's Lab, Tisco and Zee Telefilms finished with marked falls due to profit booking by local funds.

PTI