Indian equities positively reacted to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's budget announcements, posting their best single-day gain since April last year.

The BSE Sensex ended a whopping 2313 points or 5 percent higher at 48,600 while the NSE Nifty 50 index gained 646 points or 4.7 percent to end at 14,281. Both benchmarks witnessed their best budget-day gain since the Union Budget of 1997, when they had gained over 6percent each

IndusInd Bank added 15 percent while ICICI Bank jumped 13 percent each. These lenders were also lifted on the back of positive sentiment post their better than expected December quarter results. Meanwhile, RBL Bank, SBI, Bank of Baroda, Axis Bank,  PNB, Federal Bank and HDFC Bank were also up between 6 percent and 11.5 percent each.

Among the sectoral indices, the Nifty Bank index gained over 2,500 points or 8.3percent to end at a record high of 33,089. The Nifty PSU Bank index saw its best single-day gain since March last year, ending with gains of 7.8percent.

Other sectoral gainers were the Nifty Auto index, which gained 4.2percent and the Nifty Metal index which saw gains of 4.8percent. The Nifty Pharma index was the only sectoral laggard in today's session, ending 0.5percent lower.

Broader markets too saw gains but were modest in comparison to the benchmarks. The Nifty Midcap index gained 3.3percent while the Smallcap index rose 2percent at the close of trade. 1,357 stocks on the NSE ended with gains while 567 stocks posted losses.

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