Tuesday, October 18 2005 11:52 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange Benchmark 30-share Index (Sensex) today (Oct 18, 2005) opened firm and rallied smartly during morning trading on fresh buying support prompted partly by Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) positive activity on Friday.

The Sensex opened strong at 8232.26 against yesterday's (Oct 17, 2005) close of 8202.62 and later surged up to a high of 8291.94 before being quoted at 8289.66 at 10.30 am, up by 87.04 points over previous close.

The rally was led by a sharp upsurge in blue chip stocks including top heavyweight Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), which attracted keen demand on reports that three of the world's biggest energy companies were competing for a stake in a giant natural gas field discovered by the company in the deep waters of the Bay of Bengal.

Bajaj Auto also were quoted sharply up on sustained buying support following the company's excellent second quarter performance.

Crediting the positive turnaround to FII inflows at the last weekend, brokers said FII reported net investments of Rs 293 crore on Friday after their withdrawals earlier in the week.

FIIs, however, were believed to be hedging positions in the futures if their sales of over Rs 890 crore on Friday is any indication, brokers added.

Bank, Auto and PSU counters were in the limelight on fresh buying support from investors.