Mumbai: After a brief overnight pause, the BSE once again rallied sharply, soaring past 5600-mark to end at 20-week high at 5605.93 on heavy purchases by foreign institutional investors.

The BSE barometer has ended past 5600-mark for the first time since May 7, 2004 when it closed at 5669.58.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened up at 5547.49 and gradually moved upwards on sustained FII inflows to the intra-day high of 5611.60 before ending the day at 5605.93 as against yesterday's (Sep 20, 2004) close of 5545.82, a net rise of 60.11 points or 1.08 per cent.

The market is being driven by continued flow of foreign investments in the current month, taking the total net FII purchases to over Rs 1600 crore till September 17.

Operators and domestic financial institutions, however were believed to be sellers at the prevailing higher price levels, brokers said adding that FIIs contributed to absorb the sales made by local players.

FIIs reportedly made heavy purchases in blue chip stocks including HDFC, Cipla, Satyam Computers, Tata Steel, Wipro, Tata Power and Ranbaxy.

Metal sector was in the forefront. As a result, the BSE Metal Index flared up by 109.37 points to 4915.88.

However, Grasim Ind, Hero Honda, ITC, HLL and Zee Telefilms suffered a moderate setback due to selling pressure.

Brokers attributed the upsurge also to anticipation that the downtrend in inflation would continue further following fiscal and monetary measures taken by the Government.