The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)’s benchmark Sensex climbed back to the 17,000 mark on

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Wednesday, the first time since January 21, as foreign investors continued to press the buy button post-budget and concerns over Greece’s debt crisis receded.

The 30-stock index continued its upward momentum throughout the day and closed 227.45 points up at 17,000.01. Investors’ wea-lth, as measured by the market capitalisation of all the listed companies, has increased Rs 241,484.08 crore in the last three sessions.

“The sentiment has changed post budget,” said Anita Gandhi, head of institutional sales at Arihant Capital Markets. “Foreign investors, who were net sellers before the budget, have become net buyers now,” she said. On Wednesday, FIIs bought shares worth Rs 959.17 crore, provisional data available on the BSE website showed. Prior to that, they had bought shares net worth $561 million in two previous sessions.

“The Indian stock market was a good performer in 2009 and we expect it to continue to outpace other emerging markets this year,” said Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management, in an interview posted on the company’s website on March 1. “The government has done a good job in managing the economy through the recent crisis and unlike companies in the US and Europe; most Indian firms have healthy balance sheets and strong cash flows,” Mobius said.

Reliance Industries (RIL), which has a 13.06 per cent weightage in the Sensex, contributed about 83 points in the index’s forward march on Wednesday.

“While Lyondell did offer strategic merit for RIL, we believe the bid not going through is a better outcome, as it saves RIL from getting drawn into a bidding war and thus potentially over-paying for the assets,” Goldman Sachs analysts Nilesh Banerjee and Nishant Baranwal said in a note.