Mumbai: Driven by a sustained stocks rally, the Sensex spurted by another 2.85 per cent to end the week at 46-month high at 5699.24 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in Mumbai and now is poised to set new records in the beginning of the new year.

In a non-stop massive five weekly price upsurge, the BSE barometer has gained by 17.79 per cent or 860.70 points since November 21, 2003 and even showed signs of continuity of rally amidst increasing investors confidence that the Sensex would break all previous records in January 2004.

During the week under review, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index surpassed 5700-mark to the high of 5705.30 before ending the week at 5699.24 as against last weekend's close of 5541.35, a net rise of 157.89 points.

The driver of the market Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) unlike in the past, made hefty net investments at the year-end pumping in over Rs 5170 crore till December 24. In the first three session of the week, they made net investments of Rs 815 crore showing no signs of withdrawal of funds from the Indian markets.

The intensity of unabated price upsurge could be gauged by unprecedented gains in almost all the BSE sectorial indices, which have hit all-time high during the week.

Led by SBI, banking sector hogged the limelight during the week on strong expectations of better prospects, higher treasury income and bad debts recovery. FIIs have stepped up purchases after government decided in-principle to hike Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limit to at least 74 per cent in the sector.