Mumbai: The SENSEX vaulted by 44.49 points to close nearly 25 and a half months high at 3,720.75 following a sharp rally in old-economy heavyweights on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on July 14 due to sustained buying by bull operators as well foreign funds.

Right from the onset of business, share values exhibited a firm trend with pharma, banking and steel counters taking the lead, a dealer said.

Banking giant SBI and petro major RIL led the pack, registering sharp gains at close, aiding the SENSEX rise.

Other index-based scrips, which also contributed to the SENSEX rally were Bajaj Auto, BHEL, BSES, Dr Reddy, HPCL, Hindalco, ICICI Bank, Tisco and Zee Telefilms.

Cement stocks like ACC, Grasim, GACL and L&T also attracted good investment buying.

IT stocks, however, surrendered initial gains and suffered a setback on profit-selling at higher levels by institutional investors, even though the tech-heavy NASDAQ composite index rose by 18.67 on July 11. The Dow Jones industrial average also spurted by 83.55 points.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened sharply higher at 3,704.63 from July 11 close of 3,676.26 and moved further to a high of 3,726.56 before concluding at 3,720.75, a net gain of 44.49 points or 1.21 per cent.

PTI