The markets recouped previous day's losses backed by positive global cues and rising metal prices.
The positive sentiment was prevalent throughout the day as earlier the US markets ended in the green and also the Asian markets rebounded smartly from its recent low.
The Sensex on Thursday opened with a positive gap of 121 points at 14,930. The index exhibited firm movement during the day and touched a high of 15,145, up 336 points.
However, towards the end the sideways movement was offset as the index pared some of its gains and finally settled with a gain of 203 points at 15,012. The NSE Nifty gained 59 points to close at 4,453.
Among the sectoral indices, the auto index led the rally with a 2.6% increase to close at 5,415.
Mahindra & Mahindra surged over 5% to Rs 740. Maruti Suzuki and Hero Honda rallied 4.5% and 4% each to Rs 1,360 and 1,414, respectively.
SBI surged 3.5% to Rs 1,752. Grasim, HDFC Bank and Tata Power gained 2.5% each to Rs 2,530, Rs 1,483 and Rs 1,280, respectively.
Wipro and Infosys also added 2.5% each to Rs 505 and Rs 1,995, respectively.
Reliance Communications was up over 2% at Rs 245. Reliance Infrastructure, Tata Steel, ONGC, Sun Pharmaceuticals, BHEL, Sterlite, NTPC, ITC, Jaiprakash Associates added 1-2% each.
Reliance settled flat at Rs 1,898.
Bharti Airtel on the other hand declined over 1% to Rs 400.
Among the Nifty stocks, ABB and Idea soared over 4% each to Rs 694 and Rs 81, respectively.
Cairn India and Axis Bank surged over 3% each.
The market breadth was positive - out of 2,744 stocks, 1,525 advanced and 1,140 declined.
