Mumbai: The sensex opened remarkably higher and moved further upwards in line with continued pre-Budget rally during morning trading on the Stock Exchange today (Jun 30, 2004) on fresh buying support from investors.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened firm at 4859.94 as against yesterday's (Jun 29, 2004) close of 4841.38 and later rallied further to a high of 4877.90 before being quoted at 4846.50 at 10.30 hrs (IST), a net gain of 5.12 points over last close.

The forecast by meteorological department of 100 per cent normal and evenly distributed rainfall over the country as a whole also had sentimental impact on the market.

Participation by retailers seemed to have increased on the back of positive activity by domestic mutual funds, which have been heavy sellers during the month. Local funds made net purchases of Rs 94 crore on Friday and Monday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) too reported net investments, albeit in small quantity, in the past few days.

Key counters like Tata Motors, MUL, Bajaj Auto, Grasim, ACC, Bharti Tele-Venture, BHEL, Dr Reddy's, Hindalco, HPCL, ONGC and Tisco were quoted remarkably higher on fresh buying support.