Ignoring the rupee's further descent to a fresh record low, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex on Thursday gained for the first time in five days surging 407 points on the back of metal shares, which got a boost from encouraging data from China.

The 30-share Sensex opened at 17,896.84, lower than the previous close of 17,905.91, and dropped to a low of 17,759.59. Value buying saw the index recover and touch the day's high of 18,349.82 before it closed at 18,312.94, a gain of 407.03 points, or 2.27 percent.

The biggest gain for the index in almost two months helped investors become richer by Rs 1.17 lakh crore. The index had gained 519.86 points on June 28.

Brokers said the rally was backed by metal stocks after a manufacturing index in China, the biggest consumer of metals, increased in August from an 11-month low. They said higher openings in the European stock markets as manufacturing in Germany expanded at a faster-than-expected pace also influenced the Indian market sentiment.

"Global cues provided needed respite to our domestic bourses amid further weakness in rupee," said Jayant Manglik, president retail distribution at Religare Securities Ltd. "With better-than-expected manufacturing numbers from China, metal stocks outshone other pivots by strong margins."

The Nifty index on the National Stock Exchange surged by 105.90 points, or 2 percent, to 5,408.45. The SX40 index on the MCX-SX added 199.44 points to 10,817.88.

Hindalco led Sensex shares higher with a 10.93 percent gain, followed by Sterlite Industries, Tata Steel and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation. The metals sectoral index climbed 8.23 percent.

ITC, Reliance Industries, ONGC and TCS contributed a combined 184.46 points to the gains in the Sensex, which tumbled yesterday to the lowest level in more than 11 months.

The rupee today touched an all-time intra-day low of 65.56 before recovering to quote at 64.82 in late afternoon trade.

Asian stocks ended lower after minutes of the Federal Reserve's last meeting signalled the US central bank was on course to pare bond purchases this year.

Key indices in China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan declined, while the index in Hong Kong moved up. Indices in France, Germany and UK rose.

In the domestic market, 28 scrips on the Sensex ended higher, led by Hindalco, Sterlite (10.42 percent), Tata Steel (10.22 percent), ONGC (7.28 percent), Bharti Airtel (4.97 percent), Jindal Steel (4.89 percent), Sun Pharma (4.06 percent), TCS (3.63 percent), Dr Reddy (3.19 percent), Tata Motors (3.19 percent) and Reliance Industries (2.81 percent). HDFC and HDFC Bank declined.

Among other sectoral indices, S&P BSE Oil&Gas rose 3.57 percent, S&P BSE-PSU 3.98 percent, S&P BSE-HC 2.64 percent, S&P BSE-IT 2.55 percent, S&P BSE-Teck 2.54 percent and S&P BSE-Auto 1.99 percent.

The market breadth turned positive as 1,280 shares ended with gains, 985 finished with losses and 139 ruled steady. Total turnover rose further to Rs 2,323.03 crore from Rs 2,261.40 crore yesterday.

Foreign institutional investors sold a net Rs 792.11 crore yesterday, as per provisional figures issued by the stock exchanges.