Mumbai: Powered by announcement of excellent first quarter results by IT bellwether Infosys Technologies, IT stocks flared up aiding the SENSEX shoot up sharply during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on July 10 on hectic buying support by operators as well as foreign funds.

Brokers said the IT bellwether on July 10 morning came out with its first quarter results that were far higher than the market expectations and it also raised its profit expectations for the second quarter.

Index heavy weighted IT stocks Infosys Technologies, HCL Technologies and Satyam Computers were quoted sharp higher at early stages on heavy purchases by operators and Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) that made net investments of Rs 364 crore in the first two sessions.

Reflecting the upsurge, the BSE sensitive index opened strong at 3,639.42 as against July 10 close of 3,620.79 and later spurted to a high at 3,674.94 before being quoted at 3,664.60 at 10.30 am (IST).

Old economy stocks like RIL, Dr Reddy's Lab, Cipla, Grasim, HDFC and a few other showed moderate gains.

However, HPCL, Bajaj Auto, BHEL, L&T and Telco were quoted substantially lower due to selling pressure.

PTI