The stock market on Thursday made a comeback after Wednesday’s brief pause, with the BSE benchmark Sensex gaining 170.16 points to end at a six-week high driven by fresh bouts of buying by funds.

The market was backed by strong quarterly economic growth and robust corporate performance, which pushed up direct tax collection by 42 per cent in the first five months of the current financial year. The Bombay Stock Exchange barometer initially reacted negatively to weak Asian trend and touched a low of 15,350.18 but later recovered smartly on emergence of buying support. An impressive turnaround from initial weakness in Asian indices and firm start in European bourses also had a sentimental impact on domestic market. The key index ended the day at 15,616.31, a net rise of 1.1 per cent over Wednesday’s close of 15,446.15.

Similarly, the broad-based S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) gained 42.75 points or 0.96 per cent to close at 4,518.60 from the previous  close of 4,475.85 points.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned active so far in the month after a massive pull out during August.