Monday, May 23 2005 16:48 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Notwithstanding the overnight twin blast in the national capital, the stocks market today (May 23, 2005) ended 40 points up in range-bound trade, extending its gains to third straight session on the back of sustained buying support by Indian Financial Institutions.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened past 6500-mark at 6504.49 and later moved in a narrow range between 6549.57 and 6499.21 before ending the day at 6539.83 against last Friday's close of 6499.50, a net gain of 40.33 points or 0.62 per cent.

Activity was at a low ebb in view of a public holiday for "Buddha Purnima", brokers said.

The market discounted the two bomb blasts in New Delhi yesterday as well as a likely hike in petrol and diesel prices and made a further headway on fresh purchases by domestic mutual funds, which have been heavy net buyers for the last couple of weeks.

Local funds reported hefty net purchases of more than Rs 1100 crore in the first four days of last week.

The sentiment was also aided by the downtrend in world oil prices. Crude price fell further during late morning trading in Asian market.

Key stocks like RIL, ONGC, HPCL, Satyam Computers, ICICI Bank, Maruti Udyog, BHEL, BPCL, IOC, Hero Honda, REL, HDFC Bank, Bharti Tele-Venture and Dr Reddy's Lab scored handsome gains on fresh buying support.

However, FMCG and Metal shares suffered a moderate setback. HLL, Tata Steel, ITC and HDFC finished lower on profit selling by investors.