Mumbai: Led by petro-chem giant, RIL (Reliance India Limited), some of the top heavyweights rallied at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Jun 24, 2004) due to hectic short covering by operators as well as foreign funds and wiped out four-session losing streak. The Sensex recovered by 64.55 points to close at 4708.55.

Top heavyweight from the sensex basket, RIL, was the star performer on news that the company has struck gas off Orissa coast in Bay of Bengal and also in an onshore block in Yemen, in which the company has a 25 per cent stake, dealers said. The company has also acquired European polyester firm Trevira GmbH for 80 million Euros.

Short covering on the last day of June contract today, mainly turned the table in favour of bull operators.

Other heavyweighted counters like Infosys Tech, SBI, HLL, Hero Honda, HDFC Bank, ITC, Ranbaxy, MUL, ONGC, Wipro and Tisco were also in focus and finished with smart gains.

The BSE_30 share sensitive index opened firm at 4656.81 as against yesterday's (Jun 24, 2004) close of 4644.00 and yo-yoed in a range between 4717.74 and 4613.94 before ending at 4708.55, a smart rise of 1.39 per cent.

Firm global advices also partly aided the up trend. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose by 84.50 points and 26.83 points last night respectively.

South East Asian markets also ended firm today. The Nikkei was up by 163.59 points, the Hang Seng by 313.91 points and the Singapore ST Index by 4.83 points.

The broad-based index also recouped by 29.35 points to 2492.81 from 2463.46 previously.