Mumbai: Buoyed by increased purchases by foreign institutional investors (FIIs), the SENSEX opened on a strong footing and rose past 4900-mark as shares continued their upward march during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on October 16.

The BSE Sensitive Index opened sharply higher at 4887.04 as against the October 15 close of 4855.26 and later crossed the 4900-mark to a high at 4916.30 before being quoted at 4915.15 at 10:30 hours (IST).

The principal driving force FIIs, which have stepped their activity, were net buyers to the tune of Rs 960 crore in first two sessions of the current week.

The market discounted fears of fluid political situation in the wake of proposed Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) rally in Ayodhya on October 17 as flow of investments increased in the last few days. FIIs have pumped in over Rs 3500 crore in the first 14 days of the month, taking their net investments to a record Rs 18,115 crore in the current year.

Investors are also expecting encouraging quarterly results. The market leader RIL will announce its second quarter results during the day.

Index-based stocks like RIL, HLL, Grasim, ICICI Bank, ACC, Cipla, BSES, BHEL, GACL, Tisco, Tata Motor, SBI, ITC, Zee Telefilms, L&T, MTNL and Ranbaxy Lab were quoted remarkably up.

PTI