MUMBAI, February 2: Pivotals spurted on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today buoyed by a rally across Asian markets which triggered hectic speculative buying. The sensex recovered smartly by over 130 points. The new account started firm and select scrips rallied further as the session progressed. The closing rates showed widespread modest to sizeable gains. The volume of business remained below normal at about Rs 760 crore. The closing undertone appeared better.The BSE sensitive index started higher at 3288.78 and crossed the psychological 3300 barrier to touch an intra-day high of 3364.37 before closing at 3354.80, with a sizeable gain of 130.44 points as against the previous close of 3224.36. The BSE-100 index gained by 53.45 points to finish at 1454.83 points as compared to the previous close of 1401.38 points.Brokers said that the sentiment was boosted following a record gain in Hang Seng index. A part of the gain was attributed to the 2.4 per cent increase in prices at the NSE on Friday when mostother markets including the BSE was closed. On the NSE, share prices firmed up further following good buying support from speculators and domestic institutional investors. Reflecting the firm trend, the NSE-50 (Nifty) index opened at 963.45, touched the day's high of 978.05 declined to the day's low of 962.25 and later closed at 976.60 showing a net gain of 13.15 points over the previous close of 963.45. The Midcap index improved by 6.60 points to 1112.90 points. Total turnover during the day was Rs 1193.95 crore.
