Mumbai: After an overnight plunge, the SENSEX showed signs of recovery by rallying sharply in line with a strong trend in heavy weighted counters during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on September 19 on buying by operators as well as institutional investors.

The BSE sensitive index opened firm at 4,159.72 as against September 18 close of 4,134.15 and later surged up to a high of 4,198.24 before being quoted at 4,187.31 at 10.30 am (IST).

Attributing renewed buying support from operators to the last day of the week, brokers said buying was generally in the nature of squaring up of positions at the weekend.

Heavy net purchases of Rs 573 crore by foreign funds in the first three sessions of the week were also seen as one of the positive factors.

Key stocks like Infosys Tech, RIL, ACC, L&T, Grasim Ind, GACL, ITC, Hindalco, Satyam Computers, Tata Motor, Tisco, Dr Reddy's Lab, Cipla, BSES, Hero Honda, HPCL, SBI and HCL Tech were quoted remarkably higher on buying support.

Among the top gainers, BEML were quoted up by 7.71 per cent, Sterlite by 5.63 per cent, GESCO by 4.89 per cent, Mphasis BFL by 4.36 per cent, Infotech Ent by 4.28 per cent, Hinduja TMT by 4.10 per cent, BEL by 3.83 per cent, Century Enka by 3.78 per cent, Bharati Tele by 3.67 per cent and Saw Pipe by 3.64 per cent.

However, McDowell, Bombay Dyeing, Gillette, GNFC and VSNL showed moderate falls.

PTI