Mumbai: Euphoria over the impressive corporate earnings, drove the benchmark to a nearly 26-month closing high of 3726.46 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on July 25, as the bull-run gathered further momentum with yet another sharp rise of 58.39 points on heavy broad-based buying.

Excellent Q1 financial results announced by some of the old-economy blue-chip companies encouraged operators and foreign funds to enlarge their holdings, extending the overnight smart rally, dealers said.

Banking giant, SBI led the pack and finished with steep gains, while the upsurge in other index-based heavyweights like RIL, HLL, BHEL, Grasim, HPCL, Hindalco, L&T, ICICI Bank, Telco and Tisco also contributed to the bull-run.

The SENSEX had last ended at better levels at 3742.07 on May 29, 2001.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened firm at 3685.31 and moved in a wide range between 3737.76 and 3661.69 before concluding at 3726.46, a net gain of 1.59 per cent from yesterday's close of 3668.07.

The BSE-100 index also improved further by 27.61 points to 1860.54 from previous close of 1832.93.

Despite weak overnight Wall Street advices, IT shares attracted good buying support, with a majority of them ending with fairly good gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped by 81.73 points and 17.76 points respectively.

Most of the cement, mid-cap pharma and banking shares also jumped on the buying bandwagon.

PTI