Mumbai: The SENSEX opened marginally higher and later rose past the 3600-mark during morning trading in line with a fresh upsurge in select stocks, particularly pharma and steel, on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on June 30 on sustained purchases by foreign funds as well as buying by operators.

The BSE Sensitive Index opened up at 3585.57 as against previous close of 3583.06 and later firmed up past the 3600-mark to a high of 3601.11 before being quoted at 3592.49 at 10:30 hours (IST).

Brokers said foreign institutional investors (FIIs) that have pumped in $ 200 crore till date in the current year and were net buyers to the tune of Rs 386 crore during the first four sessions of last week, were believed to be heavy buyers in pharma and steel sectors.

Heavyweighted counters like BHEL, CIPLA, ITC, L&T, SBI, Tisco and some others were quoted remarkably higher.

However, Grasim Ind, Telco and ACC showed substantial fall due to selling pressure.

PTI