Mumbai: Equities rallied sharply for the second consecutive session lifting the Sensex by 140 points at close in brisk activity on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Feb 9, 2004) on all-round buying support from institutional investors as well as operators and retailers.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index that made a turnaround at last weekend, opened firm at 5810.21 and gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high at 5935.68 before ending at 5926.22 as against last Friday's close of 5786.35, a hefty net rise of 139.87 points or 2.42 per cent.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and domestic funds that have made sizeable net investments during last week, were believed to be heavy buyers in a number of blue-chip counters.

FIIs made net purchases of Rs 701 crore in the first three sessions of last week.

Operators and retailers which generally were cautious last week, too joined the bandwagon and reportedly made heavy all-round purchases in key stocks.

The increased participation by operators and retailers has once again prompted a sharp rally which can take the market to net heights, brokers said.

Partly attributing fresh buying support to news of likely growth in GDP by 8.1 per cent during 2003-04 compared to 4.0 per cent in 2002-03, brokers said the market witness brisk activity with speculators creating heavy positions.

Buoyed by a phenomenal rise in farm output in tandem with impressive performance of industry and services sector, the Government has projected economic growth at 8.1 per cent for the current fiscal.