Mumbai: The stock market today (Nov 4, 2004) welcomed US President George W Bush's electoral victory with a strong start under the leadership of IT stocks that remained in the forefront for the second straight session.

The euphoria over Bush winning a second term in office was so strong that the market discounted a sharp rise in crude oil prices to $50.88 a barrel in New York yesterday (Nov 3, 2004).

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened firm at 5871.62 as against yesterday's (Nov 3, 2004) close of 5842.54 and later jumped to a high of 5883.39 before being quoted at 5873.83 at 10.30 hrs (IST), up 31.29 points.

IT majors like Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computers and Wipro continued their upward march during morning trading in anticipation of good prospect for software industry.

Operators and retail investors seemed to be continuous buyers in several blue chip counters.

The sentiment was also aided by a smart rally on Wall Street last night. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index ended up by 101.32 points and 19.54 points respectively.

Key counters including Ranbaxy, HDFC, Tata Motor, Bajaj Auto, Grasim, Hindalco, Maruti Udyog and Tata Power were quoted substantially higher on fresh buying support.