Late rally helps Sensex close 208 points up

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 16,837.76 points, closed at 16,918.11 points, up 208.51 points or 1.25 percent from its previous close at 16,709.6 points.

The 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange too ended higher at 5,089.15 points, up 1.53 percent.

The rally comes a day before the Reserve Bank of India takes a call on raising interest rates when it meets Friday to review the monetary policy.

Broader markets, however, ended on a dull note. The BSE midcap index closed 0.17 percent up, the BSE smallcap index closed 0.1 percent up while the BSE 100 ended 0.15 percent higher.