Mumbai: The impact of yesterday's (Aug 25) twin bomb blasts in the metropolis was short-lived and stocks bounced back with a vengeance driven by hectic purchases by foreign funds, aiding the SENSEX to end 148-point up in brisk activity at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on August 26.

Investor buying was intensive even as political crisis in Uttar Pradesh deepened further with Chief Minister Mayawati tendering resignation to Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri this afternoon.

Discounting the political development, speculators that had squared up in overnight stocks slide, went on building up heavy positions on the back of a sudden spurt in FII (Foreign Institutional Investors) activity.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened strong at 4021.91 and gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high at 4160.02 before ending at 4152.29 as against yesterday's close 4004.63 netting a hefty rise 147.66 points or 3.69 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index also spurted sharply by 90.02 points to 2159.55 from previous close of 2069.53.

Old economy stocks were the first to rebound with strong economic fundamentals coupled with sustained net investments by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) that have reached to a record high in the current year, brokers said.

HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd), which dropped substantially at early stages on reports about a likely delay in divestment of the public sector oil major, later made a sharp turnaround and ended with remarkable gains in keeping with the share rally.

Heavyweighted counters like BHEL, Grasim Ind, HLL, RIL, Infosys Tech, SBI, Tata Motor, Tisco, ITC, GACL and MTNL were the highest gainers in specified list.

PTI