Mumbai: The SENSEX rallied further during morning trading with a sustained upsurge in stocks on the Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE) on May 29, on fresh purchases by operators and foreign funds.

The BSE Sensitive Index opened moderately lower at 3116.85 as against on May 28's closes of 3130.46 and later rallied smartly to a high of 3141.64 before being quoted at 3130.11 at 10.30 am.

Brokers said hedge funds were continued buyers in banking sector. As a result, Oriental Bank, Syndicate Bank, BoI, IDBI Bank, SBI, PNB, State Bank of Bikaner, Vijaya Bank, Bank of Baroda and State Bank of Travancore showed smart gains.

Operators too were seen covering their short positions at the last day of account in derivatives.

IT shares opened higher following positive NASDAQ advices but later declined on profit selling by operators. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ Composite Index moved up further by 11.77 points and 6.55 points respectively on May 29.

Among major gainers, SAIL rose by 6.19 per cent, Vijaya Bank by 5.67 per cent, Oriental Bank by 5.09 per cent, Bank of India by 3.91 per cent, Syndicate Bank by 3.62 per cent, Bank of Baroda by 3.55 per cent, IDBI Bank by 3.49 per cent, Hindustan Zinc by 3.39 per cent, BEML by 3.24 per cent and McDowell by 3.22 per cent.

However, Tata Chem dropped by 7.34 per cent, TN Petro by 5.50 per cent, Hexaware by 3.38 per cent, Max India by 3.24 per cent and Nicholas Piramal by 3.07 per cent.

PTI