Sensex Up Nearly 300 Points, Banking Stocks Surge

11:23 a.m.: Oil & Gas stocks witness good buying interest. The BSE Oil & Gas index advances 1.34 per cent; Reliance Industries was the top gainer from this space, up 2 per cent at Rs 1,092. Castrol India, GAIL India, BPCL, HPCL and ONGC were also among the gainers.

10:57 a.m.: Stock markets continue to trade firmly higher. Sensex rises 9 per cent or 278 points at 28,785 and Nifty jumps 87 points to 8,864.

10:19 a.m.: Auto stocks were witnessing buying interest. The BSE Auto index was up 1.34 per cent; Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, Eicher Motors, Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bosch were among the gainers from this space.

9:54 a.m.: Select IT stocks were witnessing selling pressure. The BSE IT index slipped 0.3 per cent on the back of weakness in TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Cyient and Hexaware.

9:51 a.m.: Jyotivardhan Jaipuria, founder & CEO of Veda Investment Managers, says there was a lot of buildup in run up to US Federal Reserve meet and nothing negative came, now that the event is out of the way people will enjoy liquidity after easy monetary policy.

9:44 a.m.: Market breadth was extremely bullish as 1,462 stocks were advancing while only 291 stocks were declining on the BSE.

9:30 a.m.: Sensex surged over 350 points while the broader Nifty was heading towards its crucial psychological level of 8,900 after US Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady at FOMC meet last night.

The Sensex advanced as much as 364 points to 28,872 and Nifty rose 116 points to 8,893.

The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday but strongly signaled it could still tighten monetary policy by the end of this year as the labour market improved further.

Meanwhile, sentiment was also boosted after the Reserve Bank of India data showed that current account deficit in June quarter narrowed to $0.3 billion or 0.1 per cent of GDP driven by lower trade deficit of $23.8 billion.

Meanwhile, on Dalal Street, buying was visible across the board. Banking, metal, auto, realty and oil & gas indices rallied over a per cent each.

Banking stocks were among the leading gainers. The Bank Nifty index surged nearly 2 per cent or 348 points to 20,176. Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, State Bank of India, Federal Bank and Canara Bank were advanced 2-2.7 per cent each.

From the Nifty basket of shares, 47 stocks were advancing while only 4 were declining.

Hindalco, Tata Steel, Bharti Infratel, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC, Tata Motors, Reliance Industries and ITC were among the top gainers.

On the other hand, Idea Cellular, Wipro, Dr Reddy's Labs and Lupin were among notable losers in the Nifty.

9.00 a.m.: Rupee opens higher at 66.86 per dollar against previous close of 67.02. 

8.15 a.m.: The BSE Sensex and the broader Nifty are likely to witness gap-up opening on Thursday, tracking strong gains across global equities, following the US Federal Reserve's overnight decision to keep interest rates unchanged. 

The Nifty futures on Singapore Exchange (SGX) were up 63.5 points or 0.72 per cent at 8,872 as of 7.45 a.m., indicating a strong start for domestic stock markets. 

Indian markets have risen sharply over the last few months and are now hovering close to all-time highs. Experts expect the rally to gain momentum on account of Fed's dovish commentary. 

Foreign institutional investors, who have pumped in nearly Rs 43,000 crore in local stock markets year-to-date, are also expected to keep on buying shares in India, following Fed's overnight decision. 

Among individual stocks, Tata Motors will be in focus after its subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover launched the new XF at Rs 49.50 lakh in India. Godrej Properties will also be in focus as it has acquired a 12-acre land parcel in Bengaluru. 

Meanwhile, Asian shares traded with strong gains. The Hang Seng index was up 1.45 per cent, South Korea's Kospi gained 0.99 per cent, while China's Shanghai Composite added 0.64 per cent. 

Overnight, US shares rallied nearly 1 per cent each. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 163.74 points, or 0.9 per cent, to 18,293.7, the S&P 500 gained 23.36 points, or 1.09 per cent, to 2,163.12 and the Nasdaq Composite added 53.83 points, or 1.03 per cent, to 5,295.18.

(With inputs from agencies)