Mumbai: After a three-day havoc on bourses, the market today (Jan 23, 2004) witnessed a major turnaround in unusually excessive volatility and the Sensex zoomed by 223 points at close on fanatical all-round buying support.

Operators joined the bandwagon of institutional investors and reportedly made frenzied purchases to cover their short positions at the last session of the week.

As a result, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark 30-share index went roller-coaster after opening on a strong footing at 5,646.33, and skyrocketed to the intra-day high at 5,832.74 before ending at 5,816.64 as against yesterday's close of 5,593.74, a net rise of 222.90 points or 3.98 per cent, the biggest single-session rise since May 4, 2000.

The rebound was unbelievable and came along with couple of coincidences such as the global rating agency Moody's and Fitch upgrade of India's investment grade, as well as a warning by the market regulator of stringent action against players floating rumours.

The breath-holding fall of over 470 points in the past three sessions is seen as a massive correction for the healthy market, brokers said adding, "The market is all set to move forward with the excellent performances for the third quarter by major corporates already pouring in."

Operators, which had reduced their holdings in the last three days, bought ceaselessly at the fag end and gave the Sensex a lift of over 60 points.

Despite the unusual volatility during the week, investors seemed confident that the roll over to next week would be as smooth as in the past.