The BSE benchmark Sensex climbed 231.41 points or 0.77 per cent to settle at 30,126.21. The index hit a high of 30,168.95, which was just short of all-time high of 30,184.22.
Similarly, the NSE index Nifty rose 47.95 points or 0.51 per cent to a record closing high of 9,359.90.
Among BSE sectoral indices, banking index was the star-perfomer and was up 2.32 per cent, followed by consumer durables 1.41 per cent, FMCG 1.08 per cent and PSU 0.89 per cent. On the other hand, realty index was down 0.8 per cent, metal 0.77 per cent, auto 0.55 per cent and oil & gas 0.53 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were ICICI Bank (+9.24%), Adani Ports (+3.68%), Axis Bank (+3.63%), State Bank of India (+3.27%) and HUL (+2.36%), while the major losers were Tata Motors (-2.27%), ONGC (-1.15%), M&M (-0.89%), Cipla (-0.84%) and Reliance (-0.84%).
Stocks gained on encouraging corporate earnings and a string of government reforms, including NPA package for banks and national steel policy.
The domestic equities also got a boost after the US Federal Reserve kept its policy rate unchanged in its two-day policy review.
According to brokers, banking stocks led the recovery following the government’s decision to bring an ordinance to empower the Reserve Bank to effectively deal with the problem of mounting bad loans in the banking sector.
A proposal to amend Section 35 A of the Banking Regulation Act through the ordinance route was approved by the Cabinet yesterday.
The Union Cabinet yesterday also gave its approval for the National Steel Policy (NSP) 2017 that aims to achieve steel making capacity of 300 million tonnes by 2030 with an additional investment of Rs 10 lakh crore.
The Cabinet also approved a policy for use of domestic steel products in government organisations.