Indian benchmarks returned to winning ways on Thursday after two days of declines as investors snapped up financial, pharma, and IT stocks amid firm Asian cues.

Sensex rallied 358.83 points or 0.69 per cent to finish at 52,300.47. Intra-day, the index swung between a high of 52,346.35 and a low of 51,957.92. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty climbed 102.40 points or 0.65 per cent to end at 15,737.75.

Bajaj Finance topped the Sensex gainers' chart, rallying 7.29 per cent, followed by Bajaj FinServ, SBI, IndusInd Bank, Dr. Reddy’s, Tech Mahindra, ITC, and Kotak Bank.

Bajaj Auto, Maruti, HCL Tech, UltraTech Cement, PowerGrid, ONGC, and Nestle suffered losses.

Of the 30 shares in the Sensex pack, 23 ended with gains.

Indian equities reflected its Asian counterparts to trade on a positive note ahead of US inflation data and European Central Bank policy meeting outcome.

"With faster vaccine coverage and off-loading of fiscal measures, the economic impact of the second wave will most likely be restricted to Q1 FY22, as per the monthly report of the Department of Economic Affairs,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, adding that gains in the market were broad-based with all major sectors except auto.

S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities, said bulls were charged up on weekly derivatives expiry day and broader markets saw selective buying in stocks that looked reasonable compared to their expensive larger peers.

"While the Bajaj twins provided the firepower to the index, the small and midcaps put up a stellar show yet again despite apprehensions on higher valuations in select segments," he added.

Sectorally, BSE realty, healthcare, finance, and telecom indices emerged as the top performers, with gains of as much as 3.27 per cent.

Broader BSE small cap and midcap indices rose 1.73 per cent and 1.26 per cent, respectively. The large cap index followed with 0.73 per cent gains.

Asian stock markets closed with gains ahead of crucial US inflation data for May. Bourses in Europe were mixed, with investors looking ahead to the ECB policy meeting for further cues.

The Indian rupee lost 9 paise to end at 73.06 against the US dollar on Thursday.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Wednesday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 846.37 crore, as per exchange data.