Tuesday, June 7 2005 16:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Led by bank stocks, the stocks market today (Jun 7, 2005) turned firm at the fag end and lifted the Sensex 23 points up extending the gaining streak to fourth straight session on late buying support from local funds amid slowdown in FII inflows.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened fractionally down at 6756.60 and later witnessed narrow movements in a range of 6795.03 and 6737.09 before ending the day at 6781.25 against yesterday's close of 6758.19, a net rise of 23.06 points or 0.34 per cent.

Domestic mutual funds, which had been net sellers in the past few days, were believed to be heavy buyers during the last thirty minutes of the session, brokers said.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) seemed to have slowed down purchases and reportedly were selective buyers after making hefty net investments of over Rs 1159 crore during last week.

After narrow movements during the large part of session, the activity picked up at the fag end following the entry of local funds, brokers added.

Meanwhile, global oil prices fell below $55 level and were quoted at $54.30 a barrel in Asian trade.

Bank shares hogged the limelight and scored impressive gains on the back of buying from institutional investors.

HDFC Bank, SBI, ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and others recorded remarkable gains.

As a result, the BSE Sensex spurted sharply by 114.29 points or 2.96 per cent to 3970.95 from previous close of 3856.66.