Mirroring positive overseas cues the Sensex logged gains in opening deals this morning.
Significant buying interest in the metal stocks led the index rally past the 18,000-mark for yet another day.
Displaying strength through the day, the Sensex finally ended with a gain of 99 points at 17,977. The NSE Nifty ended up 31 points at 5,399.
The US markets ended higher on Monday supported by strong earnings but gains were limited by a drop in US housing data. The Dow ended 56 points higher at 10,154. The Nasdaq added 19 to 2,198.
Elsewhere in Asia, the Hang Seng rallied 223 points to 20,487.
The Seoul Composite and Shanghai indexes ended marginally higher at 1749 and 2535, respectively. However, the Nikkei, Straits Times and Taiwan Weighted ended in red.
Later on, the European markets rallied sharply in opening trades. The FTSE 100, DAX and CAC were all up over 1% each.
Back home, yesterday's late selling turned out to be profit taking by weak hands. As fresh buying today led the markets to higher levels.
Robust Q1 earnings are the major drivers of the markets so far. As per Business Standard Research Bureau, net profit of 126 companies rose 30% this June quarter on a year-on-year comparison basis.
The BSE Metal index surged over 3% to 15,427. The realty and auto indices too ended nearly 1% higher each.
The market breadth was marginally positive - out of 3,025 stocks traded so far, 1,512 advanced and 1,326 declined on Wednesday.
