Brokers pointed out that yesterday's rumours could have been floated by an Ahmedabad-based bear cartel who were trapped for sometime now. The buying activity picked up with fresh support coming from foreign institutional investors who have been net sellers for most part of the month. With an entry opportunity, FIIs stepped in on Wednesday pumping in a net Rs 33 crore in select stocks. The FII turnover was at Rs 365 crore.

According to market sources, brokers had warehoused Tata Tea on behalf of an FII. Tata Tea was among the key stocks to register a smart gain hitting the upper end of the circuit with a gain of Rs 41.40 to close at Rs 559.40.

The general outlook continues to be positive though ``we may witness someprofit-taking tomorrow towards the end of the session, being the last day on BSE. But significantly, buoyancy is returning to the market,'' says Arun Kejriwal of Woodstock Securities.

Cement stocks which were in focus on Wednesday continued to hog the limelight. L&T, Grasim, Gujarat Ambuja and ACC witnessed hectic buying activity. L&T in particular has been moving up in the GDR market as well as the domestic market. The L&T GDR was trading at a premium of 37.28 per cent to the domestic price yesterday. This helped the scrip shoot up to Rs 407.25 from yesterday's close of Rs 382. L&T clocked a turnover of Rs 162 crore on the BSE and Rs 200 crore on the NSE.

The other highlight was Zee Telefilms which saw no sellers at Rs 3021 today in contrast to yesterday when there were no buyers at Rs 2,700 on the NSE, said a broker.