Mumbai: After a brief pause, a sharp rally in refinery stocks aided the SENSEX to end 37 points higher at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Dec 18, 2003) on fresh purchases by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) as well as domestic funds.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened remarkably higher at 5432.46 and later fluctuated irregularly in a range between 5466.30 and 5407.46 before ending at 5455.00 as against yesterday's close of 5418.23, a net gain of 36.77 points or 0.68 per cent.

The rally was pronounced in mid-cap stocks resulted in a sharp rise in the broad-based BSE-100 Index that spurted sharply by 54.51 points to close at 2843.85 from previous close of 2789.34.

HPCL, IOC, BPCL, ONGC, Chennai Petro, Kochi Refinery, GAIL and IPCL hogged the limelight scoring impressive gains on heavy purchases by institutional investors.

Reflecting the selective rally, the BSE PSU sectorial Index soared by 136.81 points to end at the record high at 3493.13 from yesterday's close of 3356.32.

The top heavyweight petro-chem giant Reliance Industries (RIL) too recorded handsome gains on fund- based buying.

Cement and steel counters also attracted heavy buying interest from operators as well as retail investors.

The market has become scrip-specific and is largely driven by institutional investors, brokers said adding, FIIs which made net investments of Rs 3,048 crore in the first 15 days of December, were believed to have pumped in sizeable funds in the market.

PTI