Mumbai: Riding piggyback on a selective stocks rally, the SENSEX breached the 3600-level and ended at a 15-1/2-month high at 3607 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on June 30 on unabated buying by operators and fresh purchases from Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs).

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index, which opened moderately higher at 3585.57, later moved upwards to the intra-day high at 3632.84 before ending at 3607.13 as against last Friday's close of 3583.06, netting a gain of 24.07 points or 0.67 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index improved further by 9.02 points to 1819.36 from previous close of 1810.34.

Pharma and steel shares attracted heavy buying support, largely because of heavy purchases in these sectors by FIIs that have pumped in $ 200 crore into Indian stocks and bonds in six months of the year, brokers said.

Operators seemed to be encouraged strongly by sustained net purchases by foreign funds which have made net investments of Rs 386 crore during the first four sessions of last week.

FIIs reportedly made heavy purchases in Cipla, Dr Reddy's Lab, Ranbaxy Lab, Tisco, HLL, SBI and a few other scrips.

However, domestic funds booked profits in some blue-chip counters and expected to press sales at the prevailing higher levels, indicating a substantial correction during the week, brokers added.

While a few key stocks trimmed their gains, Bajaj Auto, ACC, Grasim Ind, Infosys Technologies, L&T and Telco suffered a sharp setback due to selling pressure.

PTI