Wednesday, November 23 2005 12:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange Benchmark 30-share Index (Sensex) today (Nov 23, 2005) turned strong after a two-day slide and was quoted 56 up during morning trading on the back of fairly heavy Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) inflows in Cash on Monday even as investors continued to square up positions.

The Sensex opened better at 8542.61 against yesterday's (Nov 22,2005) close of 8534.97 and later firmed up to a high of 8597.91 before being quoted at 8590.55 at 10.30 am, up by 55.58 points over previous close.

The sentiment once again turned bullish after a sharp fall of over 150 points in the last two sessions, following increased FII activity, brokers said.

FII reported net investments of Rs 423.70 crore on November 21 after a slowdown during last week. FIIs, however, were seen squaring up positions in the Futures and Options segment ahead of expiry of November contract on Thursday.

The market discounted the defeat of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a key coalition partner in the Congress-led government at the center, in Bihar assembly elections as the development is unlikely to create any political instability, brokers added.

Key stocks like State Bank of India (SBI), Hero Honda, Bharatiya Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Grasim, ONGC, Reliance Energies Limited (REL) and Satyam Computers were quoted remarkably higher.

However, Larsen and Turbo (L&T), Ranbaxy and a few others showed modest falls due to selling pressure.