Mumbai: Positive exit poll predictions for NDA (National Democratic Alliance) lifted the Sensex for the third successive day by a whopping 71.11 points to close at 5757.30 at the Bombay Stock Exchange today (May 6, 2004) on sustained buying by operators despite slow down in Foreign Funds inflow.

Exit polls yesterday showed the BJP-led NDA making gains in UP, MP and Rajasthan after the third phase of the polling, projecting that it was nearing the half-way mark, which boosted the market sentiment, dealers said.

Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) counters remained in the limelight following good buying support from operators as well as institutional investors on expectation of mustering enough numbers by NDA-alliance to form a Government, which could not slow down the disinvestment process, they added.

Petrochem giant and the top heavy weight, RIL (Reliance Industries Limited) and Banking giant SBI led the pack on good institutional buying.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened with a huge upside gap of about 64 points at 5749.98 as against yesterday's close of 5686.19 and moved in a range between 5772.64 and 5739.26 before ending at 5757.30, a net gain of 1.25 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 index also improved further by 43.92 points to 3082.58 from previous close of 3038.66.

Banking counters attracted heavy buying and showed sharp gains at close while select IT shares registered marked gains on institutional buying.

Retail investors, who were sitting on the fence, joined the buying band-wagon, picking up selectively in second-line stocks.