Surging for the second day in a row, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex closed higher by more than 250 points on Wednesday on brisk buying in blue-chip stocks, especially Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank, amid optimism of interest rate cuts by banks.

The BSE barometer spurted by 253.39 points to close at 9,257.47.
It had posted a 330-point gain yesterday. The 30-share index touched the day's high of 9270.75 and a low of 9053.80 points.