The Indian equity benchmarks rallied for second straight session on Tuesday with Sensex rising as much as 480 points and Nifty 50 index moving above its important psychological level of 17,800 on the back of a broad-based buying interest.

In the first half of the session, benchmarks fluctuated between gains and losses owing to weak global cues.

However, late buying in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank lifted the benchmarks.The Sensex advanced 446 points to close at 59,745 and Nifty 50 index rose 131 points to settle at 17,822.Hopes of strong September quarter earnings, which will start with IT giant TCS and continuation of dovish monetary policy from the Reserve Bank of India lifted investors' sentiment, analysts said."If Nifty is able to sustain above 17800, it can witness higher levels of 18,000.

The momentum indicators like relative strength index (RSI) and moving average convergence divergence (MACD) are indicating positive momentum is likely to continue," said Ashis Biswas, head of technical research at CapitalVia Global Research.Nine of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Oil - Gas index's 2.8 per cent gain.

IT, media, private bank, healthcare and auto shares also witnessed buying interest.On the other hand, FMCG, Pharma, PSU Bank and Realty indexes closed lower.Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes rose 0.4 per cent.Shares of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea rallied as much as 3.26 per cent and 7 per cent each respectively after the government said it is willing to reconsider one-time spectrum charges (OTSC) of Rs 40,000 crore levied on telecom companies.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked the Supreme Court for three week time to review its decision to penalise telcos - Airtel and Vodafone Idea - for a delay in paying one-time spectrum charges.ONGC was top Nifty gainer, the stock climbed 11 per cent to hit fresh 52-week high of Rs 164 after crude oil prices rose to multi-year highs in international markets.IndusInd Bank, Coal India, Indian Oil, SBI Life, Bharti Airtel, HCL Technologies.

Reliance Industries, Titan, Bharat Petroleum and Asian Paints also rose 1.7-5 per cent.On the flipside, Cipla, Hindalco, Shree Cements, Sun Pharma, Tata Consumer Products, Power Grid, Grasim Industries, ITC, UltraTech Cement and Tata Steel were among the losers.The overall market breadth was positive as 2,074 shares ended higher while 1,209 closed lower on the BSE.