Mumbai, Jun 18 (IANS): The Indian equity indices surged on Thursday after a choppy initial trade, with the BSE Sensex gaining 700 points.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange also reclaimed the 10,000 mark.

Shares of Reliance Industries touched a record high of Rs 1,665 per share during the day. At the end of the day's trade, its market capitalisation stood at near Rs 10.50 lakh crore.

Rahul Sharma, Head of Research at Equity99 Advisors, said: "Short-covering in the mid-trading session lifted market sentiments and helped the markets to settle higher. Today's gains were led by Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, HDFC and Bajaj Finance."

He, however, said that overall sentiments remained nervous as tension due to a war-like situation being built up around the India-China border incidents and rising death tolls due to Covid-19.

Sensex closed at 34,208.05, higher by 700.13 points or 2.09 per cent from the previous close of 33,507.92.

It had opened at 33,371.52 and touched an intra-day high of 34,276.01 and a low of 33,371.52 points.

Nifty50 closed at 10,091.65, higher by 210.50 points or 2.13 per cent from its previous close.

The topmost gainer in Sensex was Bajaj Finance, which rose by 5.46 per cent, followed by Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 5.02 per cent) and Axis Bank (4.10 per cent).

The major losers were ONGC (down 0.71 per cent), Hindustan Unilever (0.63 per cent) and TCS (0.52 per cent).