Mumbai, Sep 4 (IANS)

 A benchmark index of Indian equities markets gained 333 points or 1.83 percent Wednesday as the rupee stopped slipping and stood at 67.03 against a dollar.

Almost all the sectors, except realty sector, were trading in green. The rally was led by metal, healthcare, auto, IT, oil and gas, banking index (bankex) and capital goods sectors.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,314.68 points, closed at 18,567.55 points, up 332.89 points or 1.83 percent from its previous day's close at 18,234.66 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 18,612.60 points and a low of 18,188.43 points intra-day.

The S&P BSE metal index surged 214.83 points, healthcare index gained 229.82 points, auto index swelled by 248.97 points, and IT index inched up by 170.56 points.

Similarly, oil and gas index augmented by 168.26 points, bankex moved up by 205.99 points and capital goods went up by 100.01 points. However, realty index dropped by a marginal 4.72 points. 

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed trade at 106.65 points or 2 percent up at 5,448.10 points.

The major Sensex gainers were Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), up 6.20 percent at Rs.126.80; Tata Motors, up 4.71 percent at Rs.311.25; Bharti Airtel, up 4.37 percent at Rs.297.45; ICICI Bank, up 4.34 percent at Rs.817.90; Hindalco Industries, up 3.97 percent at Rs.108.60; and Cipla, up 3.45 percent at Rs.419.75.

The only loser was ITC, down 0.81 percent at Rs.299.80.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.54 percent up; Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up by 0.21 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index went down by 0.31 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.39 percent down, Germany's DAX Index was down 0.62 percent and the French CAC 40 Index was down by 0.83 percent.