Thursday, March 30 2006 12:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Driven by sustained fund flows into equity, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Benchmark 30-share Index continued its upward march and today (Mar 30, 2006) hit an all-time high of 11,291.66 during early trade while operators squared up positions in the futures at the last day of March contract.

The sensex opened firm at 11,241.78 against yesterday's close of 11,183.48 and later advanced further to an all-time intra-trade peak of 11,291.66 before being quoted at 11,276.98 at 10.40 am, up by 93.50 points over last close.

The sentiment was bolstered by expectations of excellent fourth quarter earnings as well as short covering by market players on the concluding sessions of the futures contract.

Operators were also seen enlarging positions in the cash on the back of strong FII inflows and heavy purchases by local Mutual funds in the last couple of sessions.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) reported inflows of Rs 922 crore in the first two days of the week while mutual funds made net purchases of Rs 831.62 crore in the same period, as per figures released by the SEBI.

The market is upbeat following fresh commitments by market players at the prevailing higher levels.