Thursday, February 3 2005 16:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: After a brief two-day pause, equities once again turned strong and lifted the Sensex by 89 points at close on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Feb 3, 2005) on sustained FII inflows coupled with fresh purchases by domestic funds.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened firm a 6550.75 and gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high of 6632.50 before ending the day at 6619.97 as against yesterday's close of 6530.06, a net rise of 89.91 points or 1.37 per cent.

Commodity stocks were in the forefront on heavy buying support from investors.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which have turned buyers since January 27, reported heavy net investments of Rs 1715.70 crore in the first two days of the week and reportedly were heavy buyers during the session.

Indian Financial Institutions too were believed to be heavy buyers in commodity stocks.

Cement, Power and Steel stocks rallied smartly and posted handsome gains on renewed buying support. Operators also joined the bandwagon and made fresh commitments in several blue chip counters.