Thursday, May 26 2005 16:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Led by BHEL, shares surged for the sixth day in a row, pushing up the Sensex sharply by 69.06 points to close at nearly 2-month high of 6666.66 on heavy institutional buying on the stock exchange, Mumbai (BSE).

BHEL attracted frantic buying following the Union Cabinet approval to sell 10 per cent of its equity in the company and closed firm, a broker said.

Shares of BHEL opened strong at Rs 895.00 as against the previous close of Rs 870.15 and after shooting up to an intra-day high of Rs 912.15, closed at Rs 909.85, showing a smart gain of Rs 39.70 over the last close.

The Government currently holds 67.72 per cent in BHEL and with the sale Government is likely to get Rs 2200 crore, the broker said.

The BSE Benchmark Sensitive Index opened firm at 6599.27 from yesterday's close of 6597.60 and after moving widely in a range of 6670.12 and 6587.57, closed at 6666.66, revealing a sharp gain of 1.05 per cent.

On the other hand, prices of oil company shares suffered sharply on heavy selling after the meeting called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Finance Minister, P Chidambaram and Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar to discuss revision in fuel prices remained inconclusive, he added.

Prices of HPCL, BPCL, IBP, IPCL, IOC, Kochin Refineries and Chennai Petro declined on selling pressure.