Saturday, May 28 2005 10:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Sensex flared up by a whopping 3.2 per cent to two-month high of 6707.72 in the fourth consecutive weekly gaining string, on the back of sustained purchases by domestic funds and fresh buying support from operators despite Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) negative activity.

In the week upto May 28, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index fluctuated widely between 6772.74 and 6499.21 before ending the week at 6707.72 as against last weekend's close of 6499.50, a net rise of 208.22 points.

Indian Financial Institutions, which have become the sole driving force behind the market since the beginning of May, reported net purchases of Rs 765.06 crore in the first four trading sessions of the week, taking the total net investments by local funds to Rs 3389 crore so far in the month.

FIIs however, remained net sellers. FIIs reported net sales of Rs 294.40 crore in the week's first four days.

The market was bolstered by a positive statement by the Finance Minister P Chidambaram on the country's economic growth and downtrend in the inflation number.

Reports that the Government will hike prices of natural gas prompted a smart rally in ONGC, which concluded the week up by 6.25 per cent.

Chidambaram projected the Government borrowings for 2005-06 less than the estimates and expressed its intention to ensure that inflation is kept under control and the interest rates are benign to achieve about seven per cent growth.

Inflation fell to 5.55 per cent for the week ended May 14 from the previous week's level of 5.61 per cent.

IT sector witnessed a smart rally on fairly heavy buying support prompted by the overwhelming response to the pricing of the ADRs of Infosys Technologies.

Ranbaxy spurted by 12.71 per cent over the week. Wipro, SBI, Satyam Computers, BHEL, Dr Reddy's Lab, Cipla, ITC, HLL, HPCL, RIL, Maruti Udyog and Infosys Technologies also scored impressive gains.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index shot up further by 104.50 points to end the week at 3594.17 as against last weekend's close of 3489.67.

The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 were quoted sharply up at 883.91 and 338.15 at the weekend compared with last weekend's close of 857.40 and 328.16 respectively. The BSE-500 Index advanced further buy 76.11 points to close the week at 2813.65 from preceding weekend's close of 2737.54 and the Dollex-30 ended the week sharply higher at 1265.40 from 1226.69 at the last weekend.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), both the S&P CNX Nifty and the S&P CNX Defty soared by 84.00 points and 65.05 points to finish the week at 2076.40 and 1652.80 as against previous weekend's close of 1992.40 and 1587.75 respectively.

The CNX Nifty Junior firmed up by 79.90 points to conclude the week at 4314.00 from 4234.10 at the previous weekend.

During the week, the volume of business on the BSE and the NSE was relatively high at Rs 10,560 crore and Rs 22,058 crore compared to last week's turnover of Rs 10,409 crore and Rs 19,821 crore respectively.