Mumbai: After slight correction in the previous session, the BSE Sensex 
Most of the markets worldwide were in the green zone, followed by Wall Street gains on positive US economic data related to housing, employment and inflation.
FIIs, the main market movers that have been buying Indian equities since the start of this year, have pumped in over Rs 21,000 crore (over (USD 4 billion) thus far.
Consumer durables, power, capital goods, IT and banking stocks attracted good buying, while some of the auto and metal stocks logged in losses. Overall, 11 of the 13 sectoral indices closed with gains.
The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share Sensex initially touched a high of 18,423.06, up over 269 points. Profit- booking at that point erased around half those gains and it closed at 18,289.35 — up 135.36 points or 0.75 per cent.
The NSE 50-issue index Nifty also recovered by 42.35 points or 0.77 per cent to 5,564.30.
Infosys, SBI, BHEL, ICICI Bank, RIL, M&M, Tata Power, ITC, Sterlite, NTPC and Wipro helped the Sensex move up.
“Strong FII buying over the last one and half month has given a massive rally in stocks and indices. Order inflow expectation and rally in power stocks may have triggered a strong buying or short covering in Bhel,” said Milan Bavishi Research Head Inventure Growth and Securities.
“Internationally, jobless claims dropped more than expectation in US and further housing starts numbers improved,” he added.