Stocks attempted to test higher levels a day ahead of RBI's monetary policy and strength across Asian markets, taking the benchmark Nifty 50 index above 24,700 supported by Reliance Industries and private banking shares on June 5.

At close, the Sensex was up 443.79 points or 0.55 percent at 81,442.04, and the Nifty was up 130.70 points or 0.53 percent at 24,750.90. The BSE Midcap index rose 0.4 percent while the Smallcap index added 0.65 percent.

Buying across the sectors - barring PSU Banks - helped indices extend gains for a second day ahead of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) MPC decision tomorrow, where a 25 bps rate cut is widely expected.

The biggest Nifty gainers included Eternal, Dr Reddy's Labs, Trent, Power Grid Corp, ICICI Bank, while losers were IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, Tata Consumer, Bajaj Finance.

Except PSU Bank, media, auto, all other sectoral indices ended in the green with IT, metal, pharma, realty up 0.5-1.7 percent.

Asian equities ended higher with Kospi and Hang Seng indices added a percent each, while European shares were trading positive tracking ECB's policy decision.

More than 100 stocks on the BSE touched their 52-week highs, including Welspun Corp, MCX India, Fortis Healthcare, Lloyds Metals, Anupam Rasayan, SRF, Garden Reach, Solar Industries, Bharat Electronics, APL Apollo, GlaxoSmithKline Pharma, Intellect Design, Hitachi Energy, Authum Investment, among others.

In stock specific action, Welspun Corp shares jumped more than 5 percent on repeat export order for supply of 50 kms of LSAW Pipes and Bends, Dr. Reddy’s shares added 3 percent on collaboration with Alvotech to co-develop biosimilar candidate to Keytruda. Angel One share price rose 4 percent as number of orders jumped 14%, MoM. Deccan Gold Mines shares surged more than 9 percent on consent to operate from APPCB.

Railtel Corporation shares gained 4 percent on LoI of Rs 274 crore from Motor Vehicles Department, Maharashtra. Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) climbed to fresh record high on signing MoU with Hamburg-based Carsten Rehder for the potential construction of four multi-purpose cargo vessels.