Mumbai: Discounting soaring oil prices, the Sensex witnessed a strong rally during morning trading after a two-day slide and showed signs of a firm trend on the Stock Exchange in Mumbai today (Oct 7, 2004) on the back of sustained FII inflows and expectations of excellent growth in corporate earnings.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened moderately higher at 5718.64 as against yesterday's close of 5713.15 and later spurted to 5764.78 at 10.30 am, up by 51.63 points.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) which, have been consistent net buyers for the past couple of weeks, reported net investments of Rs 177 crore on Tuesday (Oct 5, 2004).

Led by the top heavyweight RIL, blue chip counters rallied smartly and were quoted remarkably higher on fresh buying spree from institutional investors as well as domestic operators, brokers said.

Investors, however, seemed to have discounted rising oil prices. World oil prices breached $ 52 level in New York on worries about low inventories and high demand for energy.

New York's benchmark light sweet crude for delivery in November soared 92 cents to finish at $ 52.02 a barrel after spiking at a new record of $ 52.15.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said, India will take "measured fiscal and monetary steps" to control inflation which has resulted from rising oil prices.

Blue chip stocks including RIL, Wipro, Tata Steel, SBI, Satyam Computers, ONGC, L&T, HPCL, Hero Honda, Grasim, GACL, BHEL, Bharti Tele-Venture and Dr Reddy's Lab were quoted up on fresh buying support.