Tuesday, February 22 2005 16:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Riding high on a major move towards banking reforms, the market today (Feb 22, 2005) snapped five-session long losing string and rallied smartly to end 55 points up on heavy buying support as also fairly good amount of roll-over in the futures segment.

Bank shares hogged the limelight after the midsession on announcement of new bank managerial autonomy policy including allowing the banking sector to acquire business and to set up subsidiaries without Government's permission, brokers said.

Overcoming initial weakness, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high of 6603.14 before ending the day at 6589.41 as against yesterday's (Feb 21, 2005) close 6534.68, a net rise of 54.73 points or 0.84 per cent.

The move towards banking reforms once again turned the market strongly optimistic about the forthcoming budget with domestic investors making fairly heavy buying in the cash segment for a smooth roll-over in futures ahead of the expiry of February contract on Thursday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which reported a hefty net investments of Rs 2304.60 crore during last week, were believed to be heavy buyers in bank shares and some key blue chip counters.

Operators reportedly were keen buyers in response to the positive development coupled with sustained FII inflows in the current month.

Heavyweighted counters like SBI, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Infosys Tech, L&T, RIL, Tata Steel, Maruti Udyog, ITC, GACL, REL and HLL recorded handsome gains on fresh buying support.

However, HPCL, Ranbaxy, Hindalco and Hero Honda showed moderate losses.