Mumbai: After a hesitant start, old economy stocks rallied smartly lifting the Sensex by 72 points at close at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Apr 21, 2004) in response to the exit polls prediction of majority for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) after the first phase of elections.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index that opened fractionally lower at 5803.70 and dipped to the day's low at 5783.92 during morning trading, later turned strong on emergence of buying support and rose to the intra-day high at 5890.02 before ending at 5876.42 from yesterday's close of 5804.81, netting a rise of 71.61 points or 1.23 per cent.

Attributing the price rally to the exist polls outcome, brokers said operators and retailers seemed to have been enthused by the exit polls projections of a healthy lead for the NDA in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections held for 140 seats yesterday.

Initially, the market was expected to remain dull until a stable Government was formed at the Centre. However, the exit polls prediction about the NDA as a clear winner prompted operators and retailers to create heavy positions in key old economy stocks.

Heavyweighted counters like RIL, HLL, Tata Motors, Tisco, SBI, REL, ONGC, L&T, HDFC, HPCL, Grasim, GACL, Cipla, BHEL and ACC recorded sharp gains on hectic buying support.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) reported hefty net investments of Rs 693 crore on Monday. Brokers, however, attributed the high inflows to the FIIs subscription to the new issue offer by ICICI Bank.