Institutional buying at PSU counters like HPCL, BPCL and IPCL continued unabated for the third consecutive session, said brokers.

However, the S&P CNX Nifty index witnessed a handsome recovery of 20.10 points on the first day of the trading account to close at 1,180.25 points. Interestingly, despite being the first day of account, institutions, according to brokers, preferred to route their buy orders through the NSE. The advances on the exchange was marked at a high of 836 while the declines fell to a low of 200. Over 100 stocks hit the upper limit of the price band on the NSE, reflecting the buying interest at selectcounters.

At the GDR markets, operators preferred to maintain a `wait & watch' attitude with the Skindia GDR index registering a net recovery of 0.38 per cent during intra-day trading. GDRs of Ranbaxy, Reliance, ITC and Telco declined by over 1.5 per cent on an average at the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

On the domestic front, net long positions on the BSE rose marginally by Rs 11 crore to touch a high of Rs 1,093 crore. The gross long positions on the exchange were marked at Rs 1,661 crore while gross short positions continued to be at a high of Rs 568 crore. "FII investment figures for the past two sessions do not support the public perception that this rise is being led by FIIs any longer," said BSE broker Ajit Sanghvi.

A section of brokers maintain that the rally is now driven by operators and that retail investors should refrain from making fresh investments.

Power, Refinery, Shipping and PSU stocks continued to be the favourites of the market participants. Interestingly, even as SBIregaining its lost charm with FIIs picking up the stock at every correction in the market, other banking stocks like Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Bank of India also found favour among leading fund managers.

SBI registered historic volumes of over 2.76 crore shares between BSE and NSE. The stock, however, closed at a discount of Rs 3.20 on the BSE at Rs 269. On the NSE, however, the stock closed at Rs 272.20 after touching an intra-day high of Rs 275. Similarly, another attraction of the day was ACC, which hit the upper limit of the price band on BSE, NSE and CSE. The stock was traded on ex-rights basis on the NSE today.