Friday, June 24 2005 18:21 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: After the overnight pause, the Sensex today (Jun 24, 2005) rallied smartly from early lows to notch up a gain of 28.86 points and end at fresh lifetime highs of 7148.62 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) due to renewed buying from foreign funds and retail investors.

The benchmark also hit new intraday record peaks of 7178.04, surpassing the earlier high of 7167.32 on Wednesday (Jun 22, 2005) after the index had touched then all-time closing highs of 7145.34.

The major gainers were ITC, TCS, ONGC, Hindalco, Hero Honda, Larsen, HIL, Ranbaxy, RIL, Bajaj Auto and Tatas Motors while Infosys, Satyam and State bank, ACC, Dr Reddy and Wipro succumbed to profit selling.

So far the market has been driven by good liquidity support from Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which have invested heavily during the week.

FIIs were net buyers of Rs 1,468 crore on Wednesday, the highest single-day inflow since March 14 and pumped in over Rs 3290 crore in the current month so far after being net sellers in April and May.

Overcoming severe early pressures following a potential downward correction to lows of 7058.01 and a soft opening of 7104.43, the index made a sharp turnaround in the last hour on a fresh round of hectic short-covering from FIIs and other participants, a broker said.

Although, the early weakness was attributed to a correction, lower overseas advices amid surging global oil prices at nearly $60 a barrel weighed on sentiment, he added.