Mumbai: The benchmark crossed 4400-mark at opening in line with smart rally in top heavyweights at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on September 8 on sustained buying by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and operators.

Petrochem giant, RIL (Reliance Industries Limited) was in the forefront on good buying support and was quoted sharply higher.

Software bellwether, Infosys Tech was also in keen demand on fresh buying. As a result, some of the IT shares attracted renewed buying support.

Select pharma stocks, particularly second-line, remained in limelight on institutional buying.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened sharply higher at 4399.61 as against last Friday's close of 4369.17 and rallied further to a high of 4426.74 before being quoted at 4425.90 at 10.35 am.

Among major gainers, P&G rose by 13.28 per cent, Bata India by 5.88 per cent, Sterling Bio by 4.63 per cent, ABB by 4.24 per cent, SSI Ltd by 4.17 per cent, United Phosp by 3.86 per cent, Cadilla Health by 3.30 per cent, Arvind Mill by 3.08 per cent, Wockhardt by 2.98 per cent and Century text by 2.90 per cent.

However, Thermax, CCI, Century Enka, Dredging corp and Nestle declined on profit-booking.

PTI