Sensex and Nifty, the two key equity benchmarks, on Thursday zoomed in early hours after the US Federal Reserve decided to keep key interest rates unchanged and hinted towards rate cuts in 2024. This move has boosted investor sentiment globally, with US market closed with strong overnight gains. At 9.50 am, the BSE Sensex surged 927 points to 70,512. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty50 was trading at 21,183, up 256 points.
On the 30-share Sensex platform, TechM, HCL, Wipro, Bajaj twins, Infosys, TCS Reliance emerged gainers. On the downside, PowerGrid, Nestle, Sun Pharma, Asian Paints, Titan, HUL were among early losers.
In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices moved higher rising 0.82 per cent and 0.93 per cent, respectively.
Sectorally, all the indices were trading in the green, led by the Nifty IT index rising 2.5 per cent and the Nifty Bank, Private Bank, PSU Bank, Financial Services, and Realty indices advancing up to 1.5 per cent.
In the previous session on Wednesday, the S&P BSE Sensex closed at 69,585, up 34 points, while the NSE Nifty50 shut shop at 20,926, up 20 points.
"The clear dovish message from the Fed yesterday has set the stage for a smart Santa Claus rally in the coming days, and this can even trigger a pre-election rally that can take the markets to a series of new highs. The takeaway from the Fed message yesterday is that the tightening cycle is over and three rate cuts are possible in 2024. The record-breaking rally in the Dow will send many indices to new records," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
In Asian markets, Seoul, Shanghai, and Hong Kong were trading in the positive territory while Tokyo quoted lower. The US markets ended with significant gains on Wednesday.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continued to remain buyers as they bought equities worth Rs 4,710.86 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.30 per cent to $74.48 a barrel.