Information technology shares stole the limelight, rising sharply on heavy speculative support. Infosys Technologies flared up after its ADR listing on the Nasdaq; the stock ended ended 5.97 per cent higher at Rs 3,392 after hitting the eight per cent circuit-filter in opening deals. Inspired by Infosys' spectacular opening on Nasdaq, all frontline IT stocks rallied to touch their upper price band. Satayam Computers, Wipro, Infosys, Pentafour software, Digital Equipment,PSI Data and CMC witnessed heavy buying and closed either at the upper price band or very close ot it.

Bank stocks led by State Bank bounced back with new vigour as many foreign funds bought into their shares. SBI, Corpopration Bank and Bank of Baroda witnessed buying support on rumours that some leading foreign broking houses have upgraded these stocks from underperformer to neutral. SBI was among the top three gainers in the Group A category on BSE. The scrip closed Rs 6.30 or 7.9 per cent higher at Rs 221.30. Corporation Bank was up 5.7 per cent, Bank of Baroda 5.6 per cent and HDFC Bank 5.4 per cent. ICICI Banking was an exception with a fall of 1.2 per cent.

Pharma stocks were the abberation to the general bouyancy and continued to be witnesse bear pressure for the second consequtive day. Sources attributed the selling pressure to profit-booking by funds and operators after having taken these scrips to meterioric heights just before the passing of patents bill. In fact, Sun Pharma was one the toplosers in the Group A stocks on BSE with a 5.8 fall. Most MNC pharma stocks including Glaxo, Knoll, German Remedies and Wockhardt ended the day at lower levels. Ranbaxy, however, was up by Rs 12.70 at Rs 488.75.

Software and banking shares were alone in giving a singularly bullish trend as most other counters closed at around the same levels due to squaring up on account of the last trading day on BSE. Among the software shares, Satyam Computer ended 7.99 per cent higher at Rs 1,409.50, Wipro by 7.9 per cent at at Rs 3,878.25, Aptech by 7.83 percent at Rs 894.75 and Pentafour Software by 6.08 percent at Rs 1,086.75. Select cement counters also saw some gains. ACC closed higher by Rs 60.20 at Rs 1,285.75, Gujarat Ambuja Cements by Rs 13.5 at Rs 307.00 and Larsen & Toubro by Rs 6.90 at Rs 232.50.

Zee Telefilms continued its week long-rally and cloed at the upepr circuit with a lot of pending buying interest. Some US-based funds were reported to be buying into the scrip in a sustained way. The rally in therefinery stocks weakened with HPCL facing large selling pressure at higher levels. BPCL was the only one which inched its way up and faced relatively lesser selling presure. IOC was also weak on thin volumes. Next week is expected to see a rally on account of the no-delivery period in key index-based stocks like HLL and pharma majors like Glaxo.