Mumbai: The SENSEX opened moderately higher and improved further in line with a fresh upsurge in blue-chip stocks during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (November 12) on sustained purchases by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) coupled with buying by speculators.

PSU stocks remained in the forefront on continued buying by operators on the back of fairly heavy purchases by FIIs, which is the prime driving force behind the market.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened up at 5040.55 as against yesterday (Nov 11)'s close of 5030.64 and later firmed up to a high at 5059.98 before being quoted at 5054.48 at 10:30 hours (IST).

Despite sustained sell-off by domestic financial institutions that have made net sales of Rs 530 crore in the last four sessions from November 5 and 10, investors were seen making fresh commitments in selective stocks, market sources said.

After slowing down activity in the past few sessions, particularly last weekend, FIIs net investments of Rs 233 crore seemed to have encouraged speculators to enter into fresh positions, sources added.

Key counters like RIL, BHEL, Cipla, HDFC, Hindalco, HPCL, ICICI Bank, ITC, ONGC, Satyam Computers, SBI and Tisco were quoted substantially higher on fresh buying.

PTI