Monday, March 28 2005 11:47 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: After a series of falls, the Sensex opened on an optimistic note at the Bombay Stock Exchange today (March 28, 2005) on fresh bouts of buying at low levels and rose to touch 6506.34 on increased support.

The BSE 30-share sensitive index opened firm at 6471.47 points as against last Thursday's (March 24, 2005) close of 6442.87 and continued to move ahead on persistent buying by operators.

It touched a high of 6506.34 and was quoted at 6486.92 at 10.30 hrs (IST), showing a smart recovery of 44.05 points over the previous close.

The market remained closed on Friday (March 25, 2005), on account of 'Good Friday'.

Brokers described today's recovery as a technical bounce-back. The BSE Sensex had lost 208 points since March one, 2005, they said.

Meanwhile, Foreign Institutional Investors' activity fell sharply during the week ended March 25 with a net investment of just Rs 6.1 crore or $ 1.4 million.

A large number of shares such as RIL, REL, Maruti, HLL, Infosystch, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, HDFC, HDFC Bank, HPCL, OBC, ONGC, PNB, Ranbaxy, SAIL, SBI, Wipro and Zee Tele gained smartly during the early session.