Mumbai: Sensex opened on a strong footing in line with smart rally in share prices at opening trading at the Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Feb 12, 2004) following heavy buying by foreign funds as well as operators on the back of firm overseas advices.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index resumed firm at 5973.71 as against yesterday's (Feb 11, 2004) close of 5949.78 and moved in a range between 5986.41 and 5962.96 before being quoted at 5973.98 at 10.30hrs (IST).

From index-based shares RIL, Satyam Computer, BHEL, HDFC, Hero Honda, HPCL, L&T, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Tele, BSES, ITC, Cipla, SBI, Tata Power, Tisco, Wipro, Dr Reddy and GACL were quoted marginally higher on some buying support.

Operators seemed to be enthused by heavy buying by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), who purchased shares worth of Rs 830 crore on the first two days of the week and Rs 3,623 crore in the current month, and as a result they also joined the buying bandwagon, dealers said.

However, local funds were said to be booking profits in select high-priced counters.

The sentiment also got a boost following overnight positive advices from the Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose by 123.85 points and 14.33 point respectively.