Mumbai, March 22: The rally in bourses continued for the fourth consecutive day today and the sensex regained the 13000-mark with a 362-point jump as strong global cues triggered buying in frontline shares.

The BSE bellwether index opened higher by 126 points at 13071.81 and surged to an intra-day high of 13326.24. The 30-share index later ended the day at 13308.03, a net rise of 2.8 per cent over yesterday’s close of 12945.88. The rally was driven by expectations of an upsurge in FII buying, positive impact of strong US markets on IT firms and a sharp recovery in banking stocks.

The US and most Asian markets moved higher after the US Federal Reserve decided to keep interest rates unchanged, without indicating any further tightening measures in the near future. This unleashed a buying spree in world markets, brokers said.

The broader S&P CNX nifty of the National Stock Exchange also flared up by 111.35 point or 2.96 per cent to 3875.90 from a previous close of 3764.55. In Asian markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped by 173.84 points, Japan’s Nikkei by 256 points, Singapore’s Straight Times by 63.82 points, Taiwan’s weighted index by 66.64 points and South Korea’s Kospi by 5.68 points.

FIIs covered a large chunk of their short positions in derivatives during the day after the heavy inflow of Rs 2,481 crore in the first three days of the week.