Mumbai: The SENSEX opened moderately higher and continued to move upwards in line with a fresh rally in equities during morning trading at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on June 13, on sustained buying by operators on the back of increased FII (Foreign Institutional Investors) activity.

The BSE sensitive index opened up at 3342.65 as against Thursday’s close of 3337.30 and later moved up to a high of 3357.13 before being quoted at 3343.42 at 10.30 am.

Brokers said speculators were building up positions in several counters including some of second-line stocks, particularly in PSU (Public Sector Undertaking) sector.

FIIs, which have made heavy net investments in the past couple of weeks, were also believed to be buyers in select key counters.

Heavyweights like RIL, ITC, HPCL, MTNL, Tisco, Zee Telefilms, Cipla, Dr Reddy's Lab and L&T were quoted up on fresh buying support.

Encouraging global advices also supported the up trend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq composite index improved by another 13.33 points and 7.60 points respectively.

Among the top gainers, Shyam Tele were quoted up by 5.14 per cent, D-Link by 5.7 per cent, Hind Oil by 5.06 per cent, Saw Pipe by 4.74 per cent, Digital Global by 4.26 per cent, Nirma by 4.03 per cent, Bharti Tele by 3.88 per cent, and Sterlite Biotech by 3.48 per cent.

However, Kochi Refinery, Silverline, Syndicate Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Andhra Bank and Bank of India showed moderate falls.

PTI