Mumbai: Hectic fag-end buying by foreign funds and short-covering by retail operators drove the SENSEX sharply higher by 79.97 points to close at 4,231.69 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on September 23 with old-economy heavyweights grabbing the limelight, despite early weakness.

An upsurge in index-based blue chips like RIL, HLL, BHEL, SBI, ITC, Telco, Tisco, HPCL, ICICI Bank, Grasim, Hindalco, BSES, GACL, Hero Honda, Satyam Computer and Zee Telefilms mainly contributed to the SENSEX rise, a dealer said.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened distinctly weak at 4,138.01 as against September 22 close of 4,151.72 and gyrated in a range between 4,240.02 and 4,111.54 on alternate bouts of buying and selling. Later, it concluded at 4,231.69, a steep rise of 1.93 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 index also recouped smartly by 57.09 points to end at 2,159.14 from previous close of 2,102.05.

Some of the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) counters, particularly refinery, once again attracted investors attention after getting battered for the past few days. As a result, the BSE-PSU index spurted by 103.63 points or 4.01 per cent to close at 2,686.06 from 2,582.43.

Steel and cement stocks also displayed a firm trend on renewed buying by operators and retail investors.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), who were heavy buyers in the last week, picked up select old- economy shares.

Dealers attributed subdued opening to overnight sharp decline on Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index dipped by over 109 and 31 points.

PTI