New York, Mar 3 (IANS): US equities ended sharply higher with the Dow surging nearly 1,300 points, as Wall Street attempted to recover from last week's steep losses.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 1293.96 points, or 5.09 per cent, to 26,703.32 on Monday. The 30-stock index notched its best one-day point gain in history and its best percentage gain since March 23, 2009, Xinhua reported, citing FactSet data.

The S&P 500 rallied 136.01 points, or 4.6 per cent, to 3,090.23. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 384.8 points, or 4.49 per cent, to 8,952.17.

Apple shares jumped 9.3 per cent, leading the gainers in the Dow.

All of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors gained, with utilities and technology up 5.86 percent and 5.7 per cent, respectively, outpacing the rest.

The market movement followed a massive rout in the previous week.

US equities posted huge losses for the week ended February 28, as investors fled the stock market and flocked into safe-haven assets amid risk-averse sentiment.

For the week, the blue-chip Dow plunged nearly 3,600 points, or over 12 per cent. The broader S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both declined more than 10 per cent.

On the data front, US manufacturing purchasing managers' index registered 50.1 per cent in February, down 0.8 percentage point from the January reading of 50.9 per cent, the Institute for Supply Management reported Monday.

Any reading above 50 per cent indicates expansion of the sector.