Mumbai: After opening sharply lower as a result of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) ban on Asia-Pacific head of a US-based mutual fund, the SENSEX bounced back on a strong turnaround in stocks during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on August 11 on hectic buying support.

The BSE Sensitive Index opened sharply lower at 3842.14 due to panic selling as a result of the decision by the SEBI last weekend to ban former chief of Alliance Capital Samir Arora from the stock market till further orders on charges of insider trading.

However, hectic buying by operators and institutional investors helped prices recover pushing the SENSEX up to a high at 3896.50 before being quoted at 3882.37 at 10:45 hours (IST).

PSU stocks were in the forefront on reports that the government would divest part of its residual stakes in disinvested PSUs including CMC, VSNL, IPCL and IBP through a public issue or offer for sale by January 2004.

Index-based counters like BHEL, BSES, Grasim Ind, HPCL, HLL, Hindalco, ITC and a few others witnessed volatile movements and were quoted remarkably higher.

PTI