Mumbai: The SENSEX overcame early strong resistance and rallied sharply in the last two sessions, lifting the SENSEX by 1.79 per cent to 29-week high at the end of week on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on hectic buying prompted by the government's statement on economy.

The BSE barometer witnessed wide fluctuations in a range between 3,890.78 and 3,722.08 and ended the week remarkably up at 3,883.76 as against last weekend's close of 3,815.31, a net rise of 68.45 points.

The BSE benchmark that had fallen sharply during early part of the week under review, bounced back with a vengeance as operators and institutional investors made all-round purchases following reports that the Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, in his quarterly report on the economy, has projected the robust growth in the economy.

Bulls acknowledged the news making heavy commitments in several blue-chip counters despite a slow down by Foreign Institutional Investors FIIs), which made a small net purchases of Rs 119 crore in the first four sessions.

Domestic financial institutions too were all-round buyers in response to the economic scenario. The positive factors like favourable monsoon, drop in inflation, upsurge in FOREX reserves and export growth indicated robust growth in economy.

Refinery stocks like HPCL, Indian Oil, Shipping Corp and IBP hogged the limelight on hectic buying support.

Favourable monsoon has raised hopes that the old economy sector would show encouraging growth during the year.

However, key IT stocks suffered a setback as a result the BSE IT Index showed a moderate fall.

PTI