Mumbai: The Sensex opened firm and showed signs of a fresh rally on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Dec 5, 2003) on sustained buying support prompted by Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) impressive performance in the Assembly elections in three States.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened remarkably higher at 5,245.75 as against yesterday's close of 5,225.90 and later rose to a high at 5,263.11 before being quoted at 5,244.88 at 10.30 hrs (IST).

With the BJP sweeping the Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh, investors were optimistic that the Government would speed up privatisation and other reforms.

Brokers said the market would get a boost on announcement of early elections.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continued to pump in funds in Indian bourses. Domestic mutual funds too remained net buyers for the past few sessions.

Blue chip counters like Bharti Tele, BHEL, Grasim, HLL, ITC, L&T, ONGC, Tata Motor and Tisco were quoted up.

Among the top gainers, TN Petro was quoted up y 5.08 per cent, iGate by 3.76 per cent, Finolex Ind by 3.51 per cent, Ingersoll by 3.49 per cent, REL Capital by 3.09 per cent, Silverline by 2.93 per cent, Alfalaval by 2.86 per cent, Hindustan INK by 2.80 per cent and Dabur by 2.78 per cent.

However, Wockhardt, IDBI Bank, Torrent, Bajaj Auto, ICI, Visuals, Hughes Software and D-Link showed moderate falls.

PTI