Indian equities notched up their best week this month, with the BSE benchmark Sensex spurting by 323 points to close at a one-week high of 34,142 as March derivative series got off to a strong start amid firm global cues.     

In addition, the rupee rising to to 64.76 against the US dollar (intra-day) and sustained pumping of funds by domestic investors also supported the recovery.

Tracking positive Asian cues and building-up of bets following the beginning of the March derivatives series, the 30-stock index opened positive at 33,832 and rallied to regain the key 34,000-mark.

The Sensex hit the session's high of 34,167.60, but finally, the gauge settled higher by 322.65 points, or 0.95 per cent, at 34,142.15, a level last seen on February 15.

The index had shed 25.36 points in the previous session.

The broader NSE Nifty also stayed in the positive zone and touched a high of 10,499.10 before closing 108.35 points, or 1.04 per cent, higher at 10,491.05.

For the week, the Sensex recorded 131.39 points, or 0.38 per cent; while Nifty gained 38.75 points, or 0.37 per cent.

"The BSE 30 index bounced back strongly today, even wiping out the losses for the entire week to close in the positive territory. In this week, markets had to deal with weak set of macroeconomic data as trade deficit widened and this was accompanied by decline in INR against the USD and further firming up of domestic bond yields...” Sanjeev Zarbade, Vice-president-PCG Research at Kotak Securities, said.

Asian markets rebounded as comments from a Federal

Reserve official eased worries about faster rate rises in the United States.

Domestic stock markets have been under pressure recently amid continued worries about the fallout from a massive Rs 11,400 crore fraud that hit Punjab National Bank, and concerns that the Reserve Bank could soon move to raise interest rates to check accelerating inflation.

Big gainers that lifted both the key indices are Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, Yes Bank, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Dr Reddy's, NTPC, SBI, Axis Bank, TCS, Power Grid, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, RIL, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, L&T, Bajaj Auto, ITC Ltd, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, Adani Ports and HDFC Ltd, surging up to 6.26 per cent.

However, shares of Punjab National Bank has been under selling pressure since the massive fraud detection and lost another 1.09 per cent today.

Shares of Gitanjali Gems too slumped nearly 5 per cent to Rs 24.80 a unit.

All the BSE sectoral indices, led by metal, healthcare, infrastructure, power, bankex and PSU ended in the positive zone with gains of up to 3.16 per cent.

Meanwhile, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) continued their buying spree on the bourses and made purchases worth Rs 1,059.42 crore, while foreign funds sold equities to the tune of Rs 2,335.34 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.

In the Asian region, Japan's Nikkei was up 0.72 per cent, while Hong Kng's Hang Seng rose 0.97 per cent. Shanghai Composite Index too rose 0.63 per cent.

European shares too were in fine shape in their early session. Key indices such as Frankfurt's DAX was quoting 0.15 per cent, while Paris CAC 40 rose 0.04 per cent. London's FTSE, however, was down 0.20 per cent.