Mumbai: Reacting positively to a sharp fall in crude oil, the Sensex opened moderately higher and surged up further during morning trading on the Stock Exchange in Mumbai today (Oct 19, 2004) as investors made fresh commitments.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened up at 5691.47 as against yesterday's (Oct 18, 2004) close of 5679.83 and later rallied smartly to a high of 5727.72 before being quoted at 5707.09 at 10.30 hrs (IST), up by 27.26 points.

Despite ongoing tussle for the post of Maharashtra Chief Minister between the alliance partners Congress and NCP (Nationalist Congress Party), brokers said operators and retailers were seen enlarging positions in blue chip counters as oil prices that hit net high of $55.53 a barrel yesterday, later fell back by $1.26 to $53.67 a barrel in New York.

After the overnight reaction, blue chips including Satyam Computers, Wipro, RIL, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, SBI, L&T, Grasim, Dr Reddy's, BHEL and Bajaj Auto were quoted moderately higher on fresh buying support.

However, ITC and HLL showed modest falls due to selling pressure by investors. Meanwhile, Foreign Institutional Investors reported small net investments of Rs 39.50 crore on Friday (Oct 15, 2004).