Indian shares continued to surge for the fourth successive day and scaled a new peak during a special session at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Saturday to test the software and communication system and their back-ups.

BSE's sensitive index (Sensex) breached the 8,900-point mark to its highest-ever level at 8,912.12 points during intra-day trading, as against the previous high of 8,863.93 points Friday.

But profit taking resulted in some range bound trading in the final two hours of the three-hour trading session and brought down the barometer index to 8,889.03 points - which, too, was the highest closing ever.

Even at this level, the index was 35.82 points, or 0.40 percent higher than the previous day's close at 8,853.21 points. Seventeen out of the 30 shares, which comprise the index, ended higher, while 13 ended in the negative territory.

The upswing Saturday came over and above three successive days of gains - 109.17 points Friday, 107.50 points Thursday and 103.37 points Wednesday. The Sensex has risen 914.34 points, or 11.47 percent in the past four weeks.

Analysts attribute the rally in the past month has been mainly fuelled by large-scale purchases by foreign institutional investors, which were net sellers in October.

Data released by the Securities and Exchange Board of India Saturday shows that foreign funds have invested $746.30 million in the Indian equities market so far in November and $8.498 billion in the calendar year.

Tata Power led the gainers among the Sensex scrips, up 2.97 percent at Rs.452.80, followed by Bharat Heavy Electricals (2.82 percent at Rs.1,424.25), Larsen and Toubro (2.76 percent at Rs.1,689.25) and Reliance Energy (2.73 percent at Rs.568.75).

HDFC Bank led the losers, down 0.93 percent at Rs.690.80, Hindustan Lever (0.91 percent at Rs.185.05), ICICI Bank (0.82 percent Rs.540.60), Gujarat Ambuja Cement (0.49 percent at Rs. 81.50) and Associated Cement (0.47 percent at Rs.512.35).