Mumbai: Stocks continued their upward march pushing the Sensex up by another 48 points at close at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Apr 22, 2004) on sustained purchases by domestic mutual funds as well as financial institutions.

Dishman Pharma was the star performer in the cash group, on the first day of it's listing on the BSE.

Extending its gains to the third session in a row, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index that started on a firm footing at 5888.17, later gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high at 5947.57 before ending at 5924.18 as against yesterday's close of 5876.42, a net rise of 47.76 points or 0.81 per cent.

Local mutual funds as well as financial institutions were net buyers in several old economy counters for the second consecutive sessions, brokers said.

Though Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) have slowed down activity, they were believed to be net buyers, albeit in small quantity. FIIs reported net investments of a meagre Rs 12 crore on April 20.

Commenting on brisk activity in Dishman Pharma, which fluctuated wildly throughout the session, brokers said this stock witnessed keen demand amid paucity of floating stocks.

The volume was over 48 lakh shares as against the issue size of over 34 lakh equity shares.

Blue chip stocks like Tata Motors, SBI, MTNL, L&T, HPCL, Grasim, GACL, BHEL, Cipla, ACC and Zee Telefilms registered hefty gains on heavy buying support.

Operators reportedly were booking profits in key shares at the prevailing higher levels.