Mumbai, May 25 -- The key equity benchmarks surged on Monday as plunging crude oil prices and rising hopes of a US-Iran peace deal sparked a powerful risk-on rally across global markets. Robust buying in banking and financial stocks propelled the Nifty decisively above the 24,000 mark, while broad-based momentum lifted all sectoral indices on the BSE into positive territory.

The S&P BSE Sensex surged 1,073.61 points or 1.42% to 76,488.96. The Nifty 50 index added 312.40 points or 1.32% to 24,031.70. in the past two trading sessions, the Sensex and Nifty increased 1.74% and 0.91%, respectively.

Larsen & Toubro (up 2.71%), HDFC Bank (up 2.67%) and ICICI Bank (up 2.11%) boosted the indices today.

In the broader market, the BSE 150 MidCap ...