Mumbai: Responding positively to overnight sharp rally on Wall Street, the SENSEX opened strong and rose further in line with a smart stocks upsurge during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on June 17.

The rally in New York stocks prompted by indication of a recovery in the US economy, lifted the Dow Jones industrial average by about 149 points and the NASDAQ composite index by 32.27 points on June 16.

The BSE sensitive index opened firm at 3,364.10 as against June 16 close of 3,336.61 and later moved up further to a high at 3,385.17 before being quoted at 3,383.59 at 10.30 am (IST).

Brokers said sustained net investments by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were the principal driving force behind the upward march.

FIIs have made aggressive investments of Rs 5,463 crore during the month of May and their net equity purchases amounted to Rs 1,017 crore in the first couple of weeks of June.

Grasim Ind, L&T and HDFC were in the limelight and were quoted sharply higher. Other heavy weighted counters like HPCL, ITC, Infosys Tech, ITC, Satyam Computers, RIL, Telco and others showed remarkable gains on fresh support.

PTI