Mumbai: Spurred by the Government's decision to monitor irregular price movements in public sector undertakings (PSUs) shares, the Sensex recovered smartly at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Feb 27, 2004), notching up a sharp gain of 100.39 points to close at 5667.51 and arrested two days of decline.

The first day rally of March contract of Future & Options (F&O) also aided market sentiment, as operators took the opportunity to go long on select blue-chip counters.

Some of the PSU scrips reacted positively and notched up handsome gains after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) yesterday placed the market on high alert and watching every unusual movement in the capital market.

SEBI would also take action against those found guilty of any market misdemeanours.

Software shares also posted gains with Infosys, Satyam, Wipro and HCL Techs stealing the limelight.

The BSE-30 share Sensitive Index opened firm at 5595.83 as against yesterday's close of 5567.12 and gyrated between 5683.29 and 5551.64 before concluding at 5667.51, a steep rise of 1.80 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index also shot up by 54.26 points to end at 2923.99 from previous close of 2869.73.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) who were net sellers to the tune of Rs 438 crore on the first two days, returned on Feb 25 with Rs 53 crore purchases.

Local funds were picking up select index-based stocks at sharply lower levels.