The National Stock Exchange (NSE) also witnessed a bullish trend due to heavy buying by FIIs and the NSE's S&P CNX Nifty index shot up to cross the 1000 point mark to 1008.35, showing a gain of 37.60 points. The BSE Sensitive index opened at 3381.63 and moved up persistently to close at the day's best level of 3502.95, up by 124.55 points from the previous close of 3378.40. The BSE-100 index also shot up by 57.26 points to close at 1535.71 from yesterday's close of 1478.45. Other exchanges in Calcutta, Delhi and Chennai also remained bullish.

Encouraging annual results from a number of corporates coupled with clearing of the impasse on thepolitical front induced fresh speculative buying, dealers said. The government's decision to set up a Rs 100 crore venture capital fund to promote the software industry led to heavy speculative buying in these counters. Shares of pharma, cement and paper industries also attracted keen demand from investors.

Marketmen attributed the day's rise to lifting of the cloud of political uncertainty as news of Election Commission's decision to hold general elections in September trickled at the last moments of Tuesday's trading. FIIs bought L&T, Gujarat Ambuja, Tisco, Reliance, Satyam Computers, Pentafour Software and Zee Telefilms. Indian institutions and mutual funds also picked up shares of RIL, L&T, Tisco, ITC Bhadra and BILT.

``The scale of FII interest despite the ongoing political uncertainty is certainly very reassuring. The fact that buying intent has spread to a host of cyclical stocks as well seems to suggest that despite polls being announced for September the Sensex may not even react to test itsrecent low of 3,180 levels,'' said an FII official. Market players including fund managers were in no mood to retreat as they absorbed the news of election date as `widely expected and largely discounted'. ``The uninterrupted bull run during the last four days was driven by sustained inflow of foreign funds. This has underplayed the impact of political developments,'' said another fund manager.

The buying force was so strong that 29 out of 30 index-based scrips gained and 132 out of 148 traded specified shares advanced. Moreover, 15 specified scrips, including Satyam Computers, Zee Tele, Digital Equipment, BPCL, Gujarat Gas, RIL and Sterlite hit the upper circuit band after exhausting their daily price limits.

The market had spurted during the mid-session largely based on hectic purchase made by some US-based fund as the fund was rumoured to have made heavy purchases in a number of stocks in commodities, software and pharmaceuticals as well as in SBI and Zee Telefilms. Software stocks gained as SatyamComputers hit the upper circuit at Rs 1,189.05 on fresh overseas buying. This scrip is also entering into no-delivery period on the NSE. Others like Infosys Technologies and NIIT also spurted. Aptech at Rs 896.90, Digital Equipment at Rs 473.50, PSI Data Systems at Rs 514.90 and Fujistu ICICM at Rs 308.30 hit the upper circuit of the price band on the BSE while Software Solutions hit the lower limit of the circuit at Rs 453.70.

In fact, the stock markets - which had fallen by over 414 points following the political developments recently - have shown a bullish trend for the first time in the last one month. Interestingly, while Indian operators were dumping shares, FIIs were picking up more stocks in the last on month. Belying general market expectations, FIIs seem to have invested heavily in the Indian markets after the fall of the Vajpayee government at the Centre. ``FIIs have turned the ongoing political upheaval into an investment opportunity, pouring in over Rs 1000 crore into the Indian markets. Thisindicates that FIIs see no justification in the steep fall in share prices,'' said a broker.