Wednesday, August 10 2005 16:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Riding piggyback on heavy purchases by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), the stocks market cut short three-session losing streak and bounced back with a vegeance lifting the sensex by a whopping 134 points even as Federal Reserve raised interest rate by 0.25 per cent.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened firm at 7615.90 and gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high of 7741.35 before ending the day at 7729.82 as against yesterday's (August 09, 2005) close of 7595.57, a net rise of 134.25 points or 1.77 per cent.

FIIs, particularly Asian and European funds, reportedly were heavy buyers in a number of key counters while domestic mutual funds joined the bandwagon making selective purchases in blue chip stocks.

Crediting the dramatic turnaround to increased liquidity, brokers said FIIs, which would have slowed down activity in case of a hike in U.S. interest rate beyond 0.25 per cent, made aggressive purchases in stocks as they accepted the Fed's fresh announcement on interest rate.

FIIs have been continuously pumping in funds in Indian equity, indicating their strong preference for investments in India, brokers said adding that several new funds registered in the recent past have driven prices to new heights.

Bank shares once again turned into limelight scoring impressive gains on hectic purchases by foreign funds. As a result, the Bankex shot up by 97.80 points or 2.17 per cent to 4598.75 from previous close of 4500.95.

Key stocks like RIL, Infosys Tech, SBI, Satyam Computers, Tata Steel, ITC, Grasim, BHEL, ICICI Bank and Bharti Tele-Ven closed sharply up.

The Mid-cap and Small-cap counters also witnessed brisk activity. The mid-cap index soared by 81.74 points to 3880.76 from yesterday's close of 3799.02 and the small-cap index zoomed by 152.88 points to 5283.80 from 5130.92.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index recovered sharply by 74.98 points to 4148.48 from previous close of 4073.50.

The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 were quoted sharply up at 1004.45 and 384.17 at close compared to previous close of 987.51 and 377.52 respectively. The BSE-500 Index spurted by 55.18 points to 3216.77 from yesterday's close of 3161.59. and the Dollex-30 ended higher at 1457.89 from 1431.91.