Tuesday, May 31 2005 16:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Buoyed by strong revival of support from domestic funds, the market today (May 31, 2005) bounced back with a vengeance and ended 52 points up in an otherwise low volume even as bank stocks hogged the limelight on expectations of early reforms in banking sector.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened moderately up at 6666.17 and gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high of 6722.55 before ending the day at 6715.11 against yesterday's close of 6663.55, a net rise of 51.56 points or 0.77 per cent.

Domestic mutual funds, which relatively had slowed down purchases during last week, were believed to be heavy buyers in several key counters including heavy-weighted counter like RIL, ITC, SBI, Dr Reddy's Lab, Infosys Tech, Satyam Computers, ONGC and Wipro.

Local funds have made heavy net purchases of Rs 3556.68 crore in equities in the first 27 days of the month.

Bank stocks witnessed remarkable rally on news of a meeting between Finance Minister P Chidambaram and bankers on June three to firm up next generation banking reforms and set targets for credit flow to sustain seven per cent growth in economy, brokers said.

Meanwhile, operators and retail investors seemed to be cautious at the prevailing higher levels and were seen booking profits during morning trading.

Domestic mutual funds reported a meagre net purchases of Rs 68.77 crore on May 27. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), however, were net sellers to the tune of Rs 446.90 crore on the same day.