Mumbai: The SENSEX once again opened on a firm note and rose past 4250-mark during the morning trading as the run-up in shares continued to the fourth consecutive session at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on August 29 on fresh buying support by speculators and institutional investors.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened strong at 4235.26 as against yesterday's close of 4212.29 and later spurted to a high at 4265.99 before being quoted at 4251.92 at 10.30 am.

HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum Corp Limited) witnessed brick activity and rallied sharply as the government started the first leg of due diligence exercise, thus taking a giant step forward in the PSU's (Public Sector Undertaking) privatisation.

RIL (Reliance Industries Limited) too attracted keen demand as the company started due diligence for HPCL, brokers said.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and domestic funds were believed to be consistent buyers in a number of blue-chip counters during morning trading.

After squaring up positions on August 28, speculators were also seen making fresh commitments enthused by the RBI's strong projections of economic growth.

Brokers said the market is poised to take a leap forward with increased participation by retail investors in response to continued foreign fund flow with no domestic selling and several other positive factors including strong fundamentals.

IT stocks continued their rally on heavy buying support. Key software shares like HCL Tech, Infosys Tech and Satyam Computers were quoted remarkably higher.

Among the top ten gainers, HPCL were quoted up by 7.23 per cent, Sonata soft by 6.03 per cent, Polaris Soft by 5.73 per cent and Aztech by 5.48 per cent.

PTI