Mumbai: After a weak start, the Sensex made a strong turnaround rising to a high of 4819.84, a swing of over 123 points during morning trading on the Stock Exchange today (Jun 15, 2005) on buying spree prompted by expectations of a tax exemption on capital gains.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened sharply lower at 4696.51 as against yesterday's (Jun 14, 2004) close of 4746.01 but later bounced back with a vengeance and rose to a high of 4819.84 before being quoted at 4788.66 at 10.30 hrs (IST), a net rise of 42.65 points over previous close.

Attributing the dramatic spurt to reports that Finance Ministry was considering a number of suggestions from investors and brokers, including a tax exemption on capital gains, brokers said buying was in the nature of short covering by operators.

Despite a likely hike in petrol and diesel prices and negative activity by Foreign Institutional Investors, the market rallied smartly as operators began taking up positions for the short term, brokers added.

However, higher price levels attracted profit booking by retailers and gains were trimmed partially.

Index-based counters like RIL, SBI, Tisco, Tata Motor, Zee Telefilms, Satyam Computers, MTNL, ONGC, Infosys Tech, ITC, Hindalco, HLL, Grasim, GACL, BHEL and a few others were quoted substantially up on fresh buying support.