Mumbai, Dec 18 (IANS): A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Thursday closed trade 416.44 points or 1.56 percent up as banking stocks gained.

All the sectors ended the day's trade in green and the rally was led by banking, consumer durables, capital goods, auto, metal, healthcare, oil and gas and IT sectors.

"Indian markets bounced back strongly helped by the US markets which ended sharply up yesterday (Wednesday) after dovish comments from the Fed and a rise in crude prices on fall in inventory data," said Sanjeev Zarbade, vice president, Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 27,053.86 points, closed trade at 27,126.57 points, up 416.44 points or 1.56 percent from the previous day's close at 26,710.13 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 27,180.92 points and a low of 26,900.57 points in intra-trade.

"So far as Indian market is concerned, progress on reforms like GST would be taken positively. Soft crude price is a key positive. We continue to be positive on market but advise investors to focus on stocks with good management quality, robust growth potential and reasonable valuations," added Zarbade.

The S&P bankex surged by 509.33 points, consumer durables index gained by 474.10 points, capital goods index moved up by 410.29 points, auto index moved up by 371.76 points, metal index got augmented by 204.17 points, healthcare index increased by 187.89 points, oil and gas index inched up by 158.98 points and IT index went up by 111.50 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed trade at a high -- 129.50 points or 1.61 percent up at 8,159.30 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: BHEL, up 4.91 percent at Rs.257.30; Hindalco, up 4.31 percent at Rs.153.60; GAIL, up 4.19 percent at Rs.434.40; Maruti, up 3.91 percent at Rs.3,385.70; NTPC, up 3.83 percent at Rs.132.95; and ICICI Bank, up 3.82 percent at Rs.345.20.

The major Sensex losers were: Mahindra & Mahindra, down 0.46 percent at Rs.1,214.20; and Dr.Reddy's, down 0.31 percent at Rs.3,150.50.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei went up by 2.32 percent and Hong Kong's Heng Seng was 1.09 percent points higher while China's Shanghai Composite Index slipped by 0.10 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was up by 0.85 percent, Germany's DAX Index gained 2 percent and France's CAC 40 was 2.45 percent higher at close here.