India's blue-chip equities closed for the week Friday on a bullish note with the key share market index touching an all-time high on large-scale overseas fund buying in select old as well as new economy stocks.

Dealers said the stock market opened for the day on a shaky note with frontline technology counters witnessing a downturn tracking the overnight sell-off in the overseas bourses.

The market index, however, staged a smart recovery in the mid-day trade as foreign institutional investors rushed to pick up shares of heavyweight equities like state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Hindustan Lever Ltd.

Mirroring the bullish sentiment, the stock market barometer 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index or Sensex closed at 7,148.62, representing a gain of 28.86 points or 0.41 percent over its previous session's close.

The market benchmark bettered its previous all time high of 7,145.34 touched Wednesday. The key barometer crossed the 7,000-level at the close of the trade for the first time in the Indian capital market history Tuesday.

The market index had closed slightly lower Thursday after touching record highs in the previous three consecutive sessions.

The buying sentiment inside the trading ring had been boosted by the resolution of a seven-month ownership feud in the powerful Reliance business and progress of monsoon rains in parts of the country.

"The market mood today was boosted by large-scale foreign fund inflows into the domestic trading ring. Investors are betting on robust earnings performance in the April-June quarter," said an analyst with a domestic brokerage firm.

"The progress of monsoon rains in different parts of the country has also boosted the macro-economic factors with investors hoping that the economy would post impressive growth in the current fiscal year," added the analyst.

The June-September monsoon rains are very crucial for the Indian agriculture, which accounts for one-fourth of the country's total economic output and provides employment to nearly 70 percent of the country's population.

India's economy grew by 6.9 percent in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005 on top of a higher increase of 8.5 percent in the previous year on increased agriculture production.

In the old economy sector, shares of consumer goods major Hindustan Lever Ltd gained as much as five percent to touch Rs.162.70 and tobacco major ITC closed with a gain of 1.8 percent at Rs.1,605.

Shares of automobile firms such as Hero Honda Motors, the largest motorcycle maker, rose four percent to Rs.605 and the largest carmaker Maruti Udyog closed with a gain of 1.5 percent at Rs.471.50.