Mumbai: Powered by all-round purchases by foreign funds and operators, stocks rallied sharply, lifting the SENSEX to close at a 52-week high at 3431.03 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on June 17.

Grasim Ind, Bajaj Auto, Dr Reddy's, HDFC, Hindalco, L&T, Ranbaxy Lab, RIL, Telco and some others touched one-year high following hectic buying, particularly by operators that have created large positions in a number of scrips, indicating a prolonged bull phase.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened strong and later surged up to the intra-day high at 3435.68 before ending at 3431.03 as against June 16 close of 3336.61, netting a sharp rice of 94.39 points or 2.83 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index flared up by 39.75 points to 1744.9 over previous close of 1705.20.

Encouraged by strong trend on Wall Street on June 16 on indication of a recovery in the US economy, speculators and Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) made heavy purchases in technology stocks during morning trading.

The sentiment was accentuated by a spate of positive developments including encouraging reports on the government's disinvestment programme.

Though brokers largely attributed the spurt to buying by operators, FIIs aggressive investments of Rs 5,463 crore in the month of May were the principal driving force behind the sudden upsurge. FIIs have made net purchases of Bs 1,017 crore in two weeks of the current month.

RIL zoomed on news that the company has struck oil at an offshore block in Yemen.

PTI