Equity benchmark indices opened in green on Thursday tracking upbeat cues from the global markets. Overnight in the US, the Fed kept its interest rates unchanged and stuck on its promise of three rate cuts in the current calendar year. Markets across Asia Pacific rode high on the news.

The BSE Sensex was up 500 points to 72,652, and the NSE Nifty50 gained 163 points to 22,002 levels.

Shares of Nifty oil and gas were up 1.29 per cent, while Nifty Realty and Nifty FMCG gained 0.62 and 0.48 per cent respectively in early trade. On the other hand Nifty Metal and Nifty PSU Bank soared by 2.21 and 1.67 per cent respectively.

Individual stocks such IndusInd Bank, Wipro, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, NTPC, Powergrid, Bharti Airtel and SBI were trading in green on the Sensex. On the flip side, AstraZeneca India and Indoco Remedies were among the top losers on BSE.

The broader markets opened higher. The BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices were up by 1.4 and 1.3 per cent respectively.