Mumbai: Select old economy counters firmed up further, aiding the SENSEX to gain another 24 points at close on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on June 19 on fresh buying support from operators as well as foreign funds.

Operators were strongly bullish on the back of increased purchases by foreign institutional investors (FIIs), which have made net investments of Rs 405 crore in the first two sessions of the week.

Starting on a weak note at 3,429.00, the BSE benchmark 30-share index later recovered smartly and gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high at 3,467.26 before ending at 3,454.60 as against June 18 close of 3,430.96, netting a rise of 23.64 points or 0.69 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 index strengthened further by 12.31 points to 1,770.81 from previous close of 1,758.50.

Operators were believed to have made heavy commitments in some key heavyweight counters like RIL, SBI, Tisco, BSES, Grasim, Hindalco, LIC Housing Finance, HDFC and Nestle.

FIIs too made good purchases in several blue-chip stocks, mainly RIL and SBI.

However, IT counters met with moderate resistance as investors booked profits in prominent technology shares.

Infosys Tech, Wipro, HCL Tech and a few second-line shares showed moderate falls.

SBI attracted heavy buy orders during the last 30 minutes on the bank's excellent performance in the fourth quarter. As a result, SBI clocked the highest turnover of the day.

PTI