Bouncing back towards the fag-end of the session in an otherwise choppy trade, Sensex today closed over 129 points higher at 26,843.14 and the Nifty surpassed the 8,200-level with metal, PSU and banking stocks leading the rally, tracking a higher opening in the European markets.
Besides, investors' sentiment remained upbeat on account of strong macro-economic data, encouraging Q4 earnings and a forecast of good monsoon rains this year.
According to the latest government data, India's GDP grew 7.9 per cent in the January-March quarter of 2015-16, taking the overall economic growth to a five-year high of 7.6 per cent for the entire fiscal.
Also, the production of eight core sectors grew 8.5 per cent in April on the back of pick up in output of refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity, too impacted trading sentiment.
Also, an appreciation in the rupee value by 15 paise at 67.30 against the dollar at the forex market supported the uptrend.
The broader markets too showed strength with the BSE mid- cap, in line with overall trends and rose 0.66 per cent and small-cap gaining 0.29 per cent.
The 30-share Sensex after shuttling between 26,641.02 and 26,885.16, settled 129.21 points or 0.48 per cent higher at 26,843.14. The gauge had gained some 46 points in yesterday's trade on robust GDP numbers and core infrastructure sector growth.
"A significant recovery in the last hour of trading and strength in the rupee wiped off earlier losses, said Deepak Kumar, a Delhi-based stock broker.
The NSE Nifty ended 39 points, or 0.48 per cent, higher at 8,218.95 after moving in a range of 8154.75 to 8,229.50.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 259.90 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.
Of the 30-share Sensex, 23 ended higher gaining as much as 3.2 per cent; while 7 Wipro, Sun Pharma, Lupin, ITC Ltd, Bajaj Auto, Dr Reddy's and M&M finished lower, fell by up to 2.35 per cent.
Coal India stayed in the lead among Sensex constituents and climbed 3.20 per cent despite the company missed the output target in May, followed by Tata Steel (2.56 per cent), Axis Bank (2.14 per cent), Hindustan Unilever (2.01 per cent) and Hero MotoCorp (1.62 per cent).
Among the S&P sectoral indices, metal rose by 1.99 pct,
finance 0.93 pct, bankex 0.92 pct, capital goods 0.80 pct, energy 0.75 pct, industrials 0.68 pct, oil&gas 0.64 pct and telecom 0.49 pct, while consumer durables fell by 0.66 pct followed by healthcare by 0.42 pct.
Small-cap and mid-cap indices also rose by 0.29 pct and 0.66 pct on fresh buying from retail investors.
The market breadth turned negative as 1,362 stocks ended lower, 1,258 closed higher while 166 ruled steady.
Globally, China's Shanghai Composite closed 0.40 per cent up, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed 0.47 per cent higher. Japan's Nikkei, however, shed 2.32 per cent.
European equities edged higher after the latest data signalled that the US economy is recovering.
Key indices from the continent, like in France, Germany and the UK, were higher by up to 0.34 per cent.
In Asia, the Nikkei 225 Average settled 2.32 per cent lower, indices in Taiwan too moved down by 0.48 per cent, while China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and South Korea based shares finished higher between 0.12 per cent to 0.47 per cent.
