MUMBAI, May 20: Select scrips led by software and bank shares remained firm on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today on speculative support and fresh buying by financial institutions. Sensex moved up further by 33 points. The session started better and several shares moved up further as the session progressed.The BSE sensitive index moved in a restricted range of 3965.85 and 3920.63, before closing at 3956.93 with a modest gain of 32.51 points as against yesterday's close of 3924.42. The BSE-100 index improved by 17.24 points to 1,756.35 from previous close of 1,739.11. Brokers said foreign funds made fresh purchases in software scrips, particularly in Satyam Computer, NIIT, Pentafour Software and others and the domestic institutions picked up shares of ICICI Banking, SBI, Oriental Bank and BoI. The local operators were seen making fresh commitments in key scrips as well as most of the mid-cap shares like BPL, Videocon Intl, United Phosphorous, Voltas, Escorts among others on expectations of goodresults.Shares of Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Global Trust, SBI, ICICI Banking and Oriental Bank scored impressive gains on brisk buying support. The volume of business increased substantially by Rs 184.46 crore to Rs 1367.50 crore.On the NSE, share prices continued to firm up in brisk trading activity on the first day of the current settlement on heavy all-round buying. The NSE-50 resumed weak at 1121.70and closed at 1141.30, showing a gain of 19.55. The Mid-cap commenced better at 1620.80 to settle at 1675.20, disclosing a sharp rally of 54.65. The market displayed a total turnover of Rs 1,831.36 crore.
