Mumbai, April 2 -- The key equity benchmarks ended with marginal gains on Thursday, extending gains for the second consecutive session after staging a sharp recovery from a weak start. After opening deep in the red, both the BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 rebounded to close in positive territory.

Earlier in the session, markets saw a steep decline as oil prices surged over $4, following comments by Donald Trump indicating that the United States would continue strikes on Iran, including energy infrastructure, over the coming weeks.

At the open, the Sensex plunged over 1,400 points, while the Nifty dropped nearly 400 points, with all sectoral indices trading in the red. However, losses were gradually pared through the session as buying emerged a...