Monday, May 16 2005 16:44 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Stocks today (May 16, 2005) rallied smartly after a week-long uneventful trade and lifted the Sensex by 76 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on hectic buying support from operators on the back of heavy net purchases by domestic financial institutions.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened on a promising note at 6456.97 and gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high of 6532.17 before ending the day at 6528.03 as against last Friday's close of 6451.54, a net rise of 76.49 points or 1.19 per cent.

Auto stocks hogged the limelight having recorded sharp gains on hectic short covering by operators.

The market seemed to be driven by consistent and heavy purchases by local funds, which reported net investments of over Rs 662 crore in the equities during the first four trading sessions last week.

Operators and retail investors joined the bandwagon and made fresh commitments in several blue chip counters, brokers said adding, "Negative activity by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) did not deter the market players".

FIIs reported net sales of Rs 277.60 crore in the first four days during last week.

The midcap stocks too witnessed brisk activity following heavy buying interest by operators in the segment.

Heavy-weighted counters like Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors, Dr Reddy's Lab, BHEL, ONGC, Infosys Tech, Satyam Computers, SBI, Wipro, Maruti Udyog, Bharti Tele-Venture and Tata Steel scored impressive gains.