Shares ended on a mixed note on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today on alternative bouts of buying and selling to finish slightly higher at the extended trading session. The Sensex gained of 15 points. Appetite for software and cement shares remained strong.The BSE sensitive index opened on firm note at 4864.29 and moved between 4876.64 and 4793.84, before closing at 4802.96, showing a net gain of 14.49 points from the previous close of 4788.47. The BSE-100 index, however, gained 27.92 points to 2403.16 from the previous level of 2375.24.Brokers said that encouraged by last week's huge purchases by FIIs, the operators have made heavy purchases in infotech, cement and select stocks. Pentafour Software, Satyam Computer, Wipro remained better on buying support.Infosys Technologies, the market-mover, once again turned out to be the "star performer" and closed at a record all-time high at Rs 10,180 with a whopping gain of Rs 280 over its previous close, which was one of the reasons for the Sensex to finish in the positive territory. Cement shares like ACC, Grasim, Guj Ambuja also attracted fresh buying till mid-session but lost some initial gains towards the fag end of the trading on profit-taking.The authorities at the BSE have extended trading timings by 45 minutes in accordance with the another leading bourse NSE where the exchange has forced to extend trading by 45 minutes due to some technical snag.Most of the software counters from specified, B1 and B2 group were in continuous demand on institutional cum speculative support and host of the scrips were locked at the day's best permissible level.
