Friday, March 3 2006 11:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange Benchmark 30-share Index (Sensex) jumped by another 24 points during morning trading, extending its rally to fifth straight day on the back of consistent purchases by institutional investors.

The sensex opened firm at 10,649.28 against yesterday's(Mar 2,2006) close of 10,626.78 and later fluctuated irregularly in a range of 10,690.00 and 10,625.46 before being quoted at 10,650.28 at 10.30 am, up by 23.50 points over previous close.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and Domestic mutual funds were believed to be sustained buyers in select blue chip counters.

FIIs reported net investments of Rs 576 crore on March 1 after a hefty inflow of over Rs 7,600 crore during February while local funds made net purchases of Rs 217.3 crore on the same day.

Crediting the post-budget price rally to high liquidity, brokers said FIIs and local funds are constant buyers in select key stocks which would be benefited substantially from the budget proposals.

Operators and retail investors, however, preferred to be cautious as the market is likely to consolidate after the long bull run, they added.

Several blue chip counters including key stocks like SBI, Bharti-Televenture, Bajaj Auto, BHEL, ICICI Bank, ONGC and Maruti Udyog were quoted remarkably higher on fresh buying support.