Wall Street rallies on bets Britain will stay in the EU

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday, led by bank shares, as Wall Street bet strongly that Britain is voting to remain part of the European Union, potentially avoiding a hit to European trade and its consequences to global economic growth.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 228.19 points, or 1.28 percent, to 18,009.02, the S&P 500 gained 27.73 points, or 1.33 percent, to 2,113.18 and the Nasdaq Composite added 76.72 points, or 1.59 percent, to 4,910.04.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Nick Zieminski)