Indian equities staged a smart rally in the last two hours of trade on Thursday, the day of expiry of the May series of derivatives contracts, with the benchmark Sensex closing at a new high.The Sensex gained about 250 points in the last two hours as traders resorted to large-scale short covering and positive news of a benign crude oil price outlook and the US Federal Reserve's likely delay in raising interest rates came in, said brokers. The Sensex went up by 448.4 points, or 1.5 per cent, to close at 30,750, while the Nifty closed at 9,509, up 149 points or 1.6 per cent. This is the highest rally posted by the Nifty on an expiry day in the last 20 months. The rally was led largely by banking stocks as the stocks of ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank went up 3.5 per cent and three per cent, respectively. 

Indian equities staged a smart rally in the last two hours of trade on Thursday, the day of expiry of the May series of derivatives contracts, with the benchmark Sensex closing at a new high.The Sensex gained about 250 points in the last two hours as traders resorted to large-scale short covering and positive news of a benign crude oil price outlook and the US Federal Reserve's likely delay in raising interest rates came in, said brokers. The Sensex went up by 448.4 points, or 1.5 per cent, to close at 30,750, while the Nifty closed at 9,509, up 149 points or 1.6 per cent. This is the highest rally posted by the Nifty on an expiry day in the last 20 months. The rally was led largely by banking stocks as the stocks of ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank went up 3.5 per cent and three per cent, respectively.