Mumbai: The SENSEX overcame severe negative impact of August 25 twin bomb-blasts that rocked the commercial capital and rebounded from the low of 3943 to end the week with another 2.90 per cent gain in sustained bull run on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

The BSE Barometer advanced by 119.61 points to end the week at 4244.73 as against last weekend's close of 4125.12. Barring a small break with a weekly setback during July 14-18, 2003, the SENSEX is on the roll for the past fourteen weeks and has risen by 39.18 per cent or 1194.89 points.

In the week under review, refinery, pharma and IT sectors witnessed brisk activity with HPCL, IOC, IBP, Kochi Refinery, Chennai Petro, ONGC and BPCL scoring hefty rises on sustained flow of funds prompted by encouraging news for these sectors.

HPCL triggered off a sharp upsurge in PSU sector as the government opened the company's data rooms to prospective bidders for the first leg of due diligence exercise, thus taking a giant step forward in the PSU's privatisation.

Pharma sector too got a boost on strong hopes of bright prospects following agreement between the US and four key developing countries including India to supply drugs for the treatment of diseases like AIDS to poor counties in Africa.

Analysts attributed the consistent price rally to several positive factors including ever rising foreign investments in the current year, strong fundamentals coupled with RBI's projections of a strong economic growth.

Foreign funds that stepped investments in the past three months in India, have invested over Rs 14,000 crore in both equity and debt in the current year.

PTI