Friday, February 11 2005 17:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Stocks surged to a strong finish lifting the Sensex by 56 points in fairly brisk activity on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Feb 11, 2005) on heavy buying support from operators as well as fresh purchases by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs).

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened moderately up at 6594.32 and gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high at 6640.29 before ending the day at 6633.76 against yesterday's close of 6577.83, a net rise of 55.93 points or 0.85 per cent.

Operators and retail investors seemed to be engaged in squaring up positions at the weekend.

FIIs were believed to be heavy buyers in blue-chip stocks particularly heavy-weighted counters like Infosys Tech, SBI, Bharti Tele-Venture, BHEL, Satyam Computers, Maruti Udyog, RIL Wipro and a few others.

FIIs, which reported net investments of Rs 128.40 crore on Wednesday, have pumped in over Rs 337 crore in the first nine days of February.

Crediting fresh interest from investors to FII inflows and anticipation of a market-friendly budget, brokers said investors have high hopes about some tax incentives including abolition of short-term capital gains tax and reduction in dividend distribution tax.

The sentiment was also aided by low inflation rate and an attractive industrial growth in nine months of the fiscal.

Inflation fell by 0.12 per cent to 5.25 per cent for the week ended January 29 and industrial growth shot up to 8.4 per cent during April-December this fiscal.