Mumbai, May 14 -- The headline equity indices ended with strong gains on Thursday, extending their rally for a second straight session amid strong global cues and optimism surrounding ongoing U.S.-China discussions. Steady corporate earnings and value buying in banking and telecom shares also supported sentiment.

The Nifty opened higher at 23,530.25 and briefly slipped into negative territory during late morning trade, hitting an intraday low of 23,426.55. However, strong buying in banking, pharma and metal shares pushed the index steadily higher through the afternoon session. The Nifty later touched an intraday high of 23,777.20 before ending near the day's peak levels. Barring the Nifty IT index, all sectoral indices on the NSE ended i...