Mumbai: The SENSEX showed signs of a fresh rally opening on a promising note and later witnessed erratic movements during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on June 18 on alternate bouts of buying and selling.

The BSE sensitive index opened better at 3,440.69 as against June 17 close of 3,431.03 and later fluctuated in a range between 3,440.69 and 3,417.74 before being quoted at 3,439.25 at 10.30 am (IST).

Brokers anticipated bullish mood to continue, with foreign institutional investors (FIIs) making sustained net purchases in several blue-chip counters.

Speculators too were believed to be creating large positions on encouraging factors like the arrival of monsoon in several parts of the country and indication of government's positive steps on disinvestment programme.

Grasim Ind opened with a big bang as the company struck a Rs 2,200-crore deal with L&T to buy the cement division.

Besides, heavy weights like BHEL, BSES, GACL, HDFC, HPCL, Hindalco, ITC, ACC, MTNL, SBI, Telco and Tisco were quoted remarkably higher.

However, RIL, Infosys Tech, Bajaj Auto, Dr Reddy's Lab and a few others showed marked falls.

PTI