Mumbai: The Sensex, after crossing the 5300-mark, ended up by 33.49 points at 5298.16 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Sep 8, 2004) during the trading as share prices continued to rally for the fourth successive day on sustained buying by operators as well as retail investors.

As per market analysts the Sensex, which had crossed the crucial resistance level of 5255-75 at the closing level was an indication of further upsurge in share values.

The day's rally was not confined to any particular sector as most of the segments participated in the current up-move, dealers said.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened sharply higher at 5281.11 as against yesterday's close of 5264.67 and moved in a limited range between 5305.67 and 5270.66 before concluding at 5298.16, a rise of 0.64 per cent.

Right from the onset of business, shares showed firm trend on positive advices from Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose by 82.59 and 14.08 points respectively last night.

Easing of international crude oil prices also impacted favourably on the market as it could contain the inflation rate and as a result some of the oil stocks gained.

Pharma shares continued to be in good demand and notched handsome gains on investment buying, while cement stock also attracted renewed buying on news of increased despatches in the month of August.

Bank stocks, which were lying low at the opening session gathered momentum after mid-session and some of them even ended in positive terrain.