Mumbai: The SENSEX opened on a strong note and later rallied smartly during morning trading, showing signs of a further stocks upsurge ahead on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on July 8 on fresh buying support from operators, as well as sustained purchases by foreign funds.

The BSE sensitive index opened firm at 3,628.02 as against July 7 close of 3,612.53 and later rallied sharply to the intra-day high at 3,643.21 before being quoted at 3,628.69 at 10.30 am (IST).

Reacting positively to sustained and increased net investments by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) that have made net purchases of Rs 797 crore during last week, speculators were seen making fresh commitments in several blue chip shares during early stages of the session, brokers said.

Heavyweighted stocks like BSES, Dr Reddy's Lab, CIPLA, Glaxo, HLL, ICICI Bank, ITC, RIL and Tisco were quoted smartly higher on buying support.

The sentiment was well supported by a sharp rally on Wall Street on July 7 night. The Dow Jones industrial average ended up by 146.59 points and the NASDAQ composite index by 57.79 points on July 7.

Among the top gainers, UTI Bank were quoted up by 7.02 per cent, BASF by 6.93 per cent, Saw Pipe by 6.90 per cent, D-Link by 6.42 per cent, HDFC Bank by 5.87 per cent, Syngenta by 4.25 per cent, Dredging Corp by 3.90 per cent, Vijaya Bank by 3.76 per cent and United Phosp by 3.72 per cent.

However, BoB, LIC Housing, ITI Ltd, HMT, Hinduja TMT, IDBI, GMDC, BHEL and Tata Power showed moderate losses.

PTI