Wednesday, November 9 2005 11:57 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange Benchmark 30-share Index (sensex) rallied further during morning trade as stocks continued their upward march on increased Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) activity amid easing crude oil prices.

FIIs, which have turned heavy buyers after a month-long negative activity in equity, reported net investments of Rs 531 crore, taking their inflows in the first three trading days of November to Rs 966 crore.

The sensex opened firm at 8332.01 as against yesterday's close of 8317.80 and later spurted to a high of 8390.07 before being quoted at 8390.06 at 10.30 am, up by 72.26 points over previous close.

The market is driven by sustained FII inflows in the current month. FIIs have also been covering short positions in the derivatives besides making fresh purchases in the Cash, brokers said.

Domestic mutual funds and retailers, however, were seen booking profits in select key counters. Mutual funds reported net sales of over Rs 145 crore during the last two days on November 2 and 7.

The market had a sentimental impact from a statement by Finance Minister P Chidambaram that the Government is looking at disinvesting small portion of equity in profit making public sector enterprises other than the 'Navratnas'.

Heavyweighted counters like RIL, ICICI Bank, Infosys Tech HDFC, Satyam Computers, TCS Ltd, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Tele-Vent and Dr Reddy's Lab were quoted remarkably up on fresh buying support.