Mumbai: Led by State Bank of India (SBI), share values rallied further at the Bombay Stock Exchange today (Dec 22, 2003) lifting the Sensex by another 36.61 points to close at new 45-1/2 month peak of 5577.96 on hectic buying by foreign funds as well as short-covering by operators.

The rally in SBI was percolated to other Banking shares, particularly Public Sector Banks, like Corporation Bank, BoB, BoI, OBC, PNB, IOB, Union Bank, Vijaya Bank, IDBI Bank, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur and State Bank of Travancore, finishing with sharp gains.

Spurt in banking sector was attributed to hopes of better prospects, higher treasury income, recovery of bad debts and as a result increased buying by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), a dealer said.

Index-based shares like RIL, Infosys Tech, Grasim, MTNL, Hindalco, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Tele, BHEL, BSES, Dr Reddy's Lab ONGC, Satyam Computer, Tata Power and Tisco also attracted heavy buying and aided the Sensex rise.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened moderately higher at 5547.68 as against last Friday's close of 5541.35 and later improved further to a high of 5590.45 before concluding at 45-1/2 month high of 5577.96, a net gain of 0.66 per cent.

Last time the Sensex had finished at 5589.85 was on March 7, 2000.

Short-coverings by operators just three days ahead of the expiry of December contract on Wednesday in the Futures & Options (F&O), in the light of a holiday on Thursday for "Christmas", also partly boosted the market sentiment, a broker said.