After a flat closing on Monday, the markets staged a stellar comeback today as a lower GDP growth in March eased fears of a hawkish policy stance by the Reserve Bank at its policy meet scheduled next month.

The BSE benchmark index, Sensex closed the day up 271 points at 18,503 while the Nifty added 87 points to end at 5,560.

Earlier the day, the markets started on a firm start on the back of positive Asia cues.

However, the markets witnessed some selling pressure in early afternoon as the GDP numbers were released only to retrace and move further north.

The barometer index BSE Sensex and the CNX Nifty hit their highest level in more than two-weeks in the afternoon trades.

The positive cues from the global markets front added

to the buoyant sentiment.

The GDP growth slowed down to 7.8% in March, lower than the anticipated 8.3%.

The manufacturing sector grew 5.5% in January-March from a year earlier, while farm output rose by an annual 7.5%, the data showed.

The lower than expected GDP figure has eased concerns of an aggressive monetary tightening by the central bank to tame inflation.

On the global front, the Hang Seng, Nikkei and Seoul indices have gained in the region of 2 % each, while the FTSE, CAC and DAX gained 1% each.