Mumbai: The benchmark resumed on a strong footing extending overnight gains in line with continued rally in share prices at opening session on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on September 30 following sustained buying by foreign as well as domestic funds.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened sharply higher at 4,428.16 as against September 29 close of 4,402.05 and moved up further to a high of 4,444.44. Later, profit booking pulled down the SENSEX to quote at 4,427.64 at 10.30 am (IST).

Most of the public sector undertakings (PSUs) counters, mainly refineries, remained in the limelight on good buying support from institutional investors and operators.

Index-based shares like BHEL, BSES, Cipla, Dr Reddy, GACL, HCL Tech, Hero Honda, Hindalco, Infosys Tech, ITC, Ranbaxy, RIL, Satyam Computer, SBI and Zee Telefilms showed marked gains on good buying support.

Dealers partly attributed initial firm trend to positive global advices. On Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose further by 67.16 points and 32.49 points last night respectively.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) picked up shares worth Rs 498 crore in the last week while local mutual funds also purchased shares worth Rs 135 crore during the last week.

Among major gainers, BEML was quoted higher by 7.84 per cent, Dredging Corp by 7.32 per cent, Gujarat Gas by 4.91 per cent, GESCO by 4.34 per cent, EIL by 4.14 per cent, GAIL by 4.06 per cent, GNFC by 3.68 per cent, Kotak Mah by 3.55 per cent, Zee Tele by 3.54 per cent and BILT by 3.21 per cent.

However, HPCL, IDBI, GlaxoSmith Con, Torrent Pharma and MTNL were quoted marginally lower.

PTI