Mumbai: Buoyed by firm global advices, the Sensex recovered all of its overnight losses and closed up by 85.37 at 5123.65 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Aug 19, 2004) on renewed buying by operators.

Cuts in customs and excise duties on petroleum products also had its impact on the market, some dealers said.

The rally was led by IT, Auto, Cement and Steel stocks despite underlying uncertainty caused by soaring international crude oil prices, which closed at an all-time high of $ 47.37 yesterday (Aug 18, 2004) in New York.

Spurt in the Sensex could be gauged by smart rise in 26 out of 30 index-based scrips including RIL, Infosys Tech, ITC, Grasim, BHEL, HDFC, Hero Honda, HPCL, MUL, Hindalco, ONGC, Ranbaxy, Satyam Computer, Wipro, Tata Motor and Tisco.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened higher at 5056.17 as against yesterday's close of 5038.28 and rallied further to a high of 5132.83 before concluding at 5123.65, a sharp rise of 1.69 per cent.

Right from the onset of business, share prices exhibited firm trend due to positive overseas advices as on the Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite flared up by 110.32 points and 36.12 points respectively last night.

Southeast Asian markets also ended firm today. The Hang Seng ended up by 168.13 points, the Nikkei by 129.27 points and Singapore ST Index by 16.37 points.

Zee Telefilms was in the limelight on news that the company is expected to secure telecast rights of cricket for the next four years.