FIIs made purchases in heavy-weighted counters like ITC, SBI, Telco, Mahindra and Mahindra, Reliance, Hindustan Lever, BHEL, Zee Telefilms and others. Domestic institutions also bought several stocks.`` Sensex (BSE Sensitive index) opened higher at 3134.68 and improved further to finish at around the day's best level at 3167.22, with a handsome gain of 83.56 against the Friday's close of 3083.56. The BSE-100 index gained 35.00 points to 1400.10 from the previous level of 1365.10.ITC clocked the highest turnover of Rs 252.61 crore of the total volume of Rs 1240.26 crore.

ITC shot up by Rs 25.50 to Rs 695.50, Zee by Rs 48 at Rs 651, Satyam Computer by Rs 20.75 at Rs 495.50, Reliance by Rs 6.10 at Rs 123.60, SBI by Rs 8.20 at Rs 206.70, Telco by Rs 5.10 at Rs 146 and Tisco by Rs 3.05 at Rs 94.25on buying support.

On the National Stock Exchange(NSE), equities rose sharply on hectic buying though foreign institutional investors (fIIs) were reported to have sold heavily. FIIs bought shares worth Rs 4.46 crore but sold shares amounting to Rs 23.34 crore. FIs and mutual funds, however, picked up shares valued at Rs 11.96 crore while pressing sales to the tune of Rs 5.67 crore, a per the provisional figures. The S&P CNX Nifty opened steady at 900.20 and advanced further to close at 920.50 as against last Friday's close of 899.70, netting a gain of 20.80 pts. Total volume of business was up at Rs 1296.15 crore.