Mumbai: The Sensex opened on a strong note and later rose past 5,500-mark in line with a fresh stocks rally during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Dec 19, 2003) on fairly heavy buying by operators on the back of sustained flow of funds from foreign investors.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened firm at 5,486.63 as against yesterday's close of 5,455.00 and later surged up to a high at 5,519.63 before being quoted at 5,514.10 at 10.30 hrs (IST).

A number of key counters including heavyweights like BHEL, Infosys Tech, GACL, Grasim, ITC, ONGC, RIL, Satyam Comp, Tisco, Tata Motors and Zee Telefilms were quoted remarkably higher on hectic buying by operators which seemed to be keen in building up positions on expectations of continuous flow of foreign investments that have already reached the record high.

However, HPCL, BPCL, Chennai Petro and a few other PSU stocks, which witnessed a sharp rally yesterday, met with resistance at the prevailing higher levels.

The sentiment was also aided by a sharp rally on Wall Street last night. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by over 102 points at a 19-month high and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 34.85 points yesterday.

Among the top gainers, Adani Exports were quoted up by 11.46 per cent, IDBI Bank by 6.80 per cent, GMDC by 6.27 per cent, India Cement by 5.74 per cent, L&T by 5.21 per cent, Exide Ind by 5.03 per cent, Jaiprakash by 3.69 per cent, Alstom Power by 3.57 per cent and Hexaware by 3.40 per cent.

However, ICI, EIH, BPCL and SCI were among the prominent losers.

PTI