Mumbai: The SENSEX once again opened past 3,900-mark and later fluctuated in a restricted range in line with lacklustre activity during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on August 13 on selective buying support.

The BSE Sensitive Index opened remarkably up at 3,910.86 as against the August 12 close of 3,889.41 and later moved up to a high at 3,920.73 before being quoted at 3,915.74 at 10:30 hours (IST).

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and speculators were believed to be buyers in several blue-chip counters, brokers said, adding the operators were more or less cautious and watching the movements as the SENSEX has been resisting to close above 3,900-mark in the past couple of sessions.

Cement and steel shares attracted fairly heavy buying interest and were quoted substantially higher.

Other gainers include key stocks like HPCL, MTNL, HLL, RIL and HCL Technologies.

The market is expected to witness a long rally once the SENSEX crossed the crucial 4,000-level, brokers said, ruling out any impact on stock markets of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)'s directive to FIIs operating in India to disclose on fortnightly basis details of participatory notes (PNs) issued to overseas investors such as hedge funds.

PTI