Led by fag-end buying in IT, metal and financial stocks, the BSE benchmark Sensex climbed 208 points on Wednesday amid buoyant investor sentiment spurred by better growth data for the US economy.
     
After trading modestly higher in a narrow range for most of the day, the Sensex suddenly started climbing rapidly in late afternoon trade and ended higher by 208.27 points, or 1.15 percent, at 18,257.12, its best closing since August 9.
     
The Sensex had fallen by 118 points in the previous two sessions.
     
Shrugging off weak cues from the European market, the wide- based Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange also added 1.2 percent to finish higher at 5,479.15 points.
     
"The rally was led by IT shares that have taken a beating lately amid concerns about growing protectionism in the US and worries about the state of the American economy," IIFL Vice President (Research) Amar Ambani said.
     
IT bellwether Infosys rose about 2 percent to Rs 2,805.1 and TCS by 2.13 percent to Rs 868.80. Another software major, Wipro, advanced 1.83 percent.
     
However, the gain in Sensex was capped at some extent by a further decline in the value of index heavyweight Reliance Industries Ltd, which has been under-performing in recent times. RIL ended 0.65 percent lower at Rs 964.75.
     
"The long-term trend of RIL is not so positive and it will take some time to recover," Diwan said, adding, "If RIL had participated in today's rally, the market would have gone to a much higher level."
     
Recording a smart gain for the second consecutive session, Hindalco surged 4.58 percent, the most in the Sensex pack, on the back of positive June quarter results and an upgraded outlook for the rest of the year.
     
"In the metal sector, buying has shifted to Hindalco and it may see further upward movement in coming days," Networth Stock Broking Head of Institutional Business Prakash Diwan said.
     
Banking counters such as HDFC and ICICI Bank attracted good buying support on hopes of strong lending growth and ended with handsome gains. HDFC zoomed 3.14 percent, HDFC Bank 3 percent and ICICI Bank 1 percent. SBI, however, ended in the red with a loss of 0.1 percent.
     
Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications also saw selling pressure and ended with a loss of 1.14 percent, the most in the BSE-30 pack.
          
In the Sensex components, 22 stock ended with gains while 8 closed in the red.

Among auto companies, Tata Motors zoomed nearly 5 percent to touch its highest ever level of Rs 1,055, amid media reports that the auto major is looking to raise funds. The scrip ended with a gain of 4.19 percent.
     
Some other auto stocks also attracted buying. Hero Honda rose 0.15 percent and Maruti 0.03 percent.
     
"The demand environment in the automobile sector remains upbeat. The growth will continue for the rest of the financial year on account of the incremental volumes of the new launches and higher sales during the upcoming festive season," domestic brokerage house Angel Broking said.
    
On the global front, Asian stocks ended narrowly mixed. Key indices from China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan ended with minor losses while from Japan and South Korea finished with small gains.
     
European markets too were trading lower in their late morning deals. The CAC and the FTSE was down while the DAX was trading flat.