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At 3:14pm, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 242 points at 21,519 while the 50-unit NSE Nifty was at 6,403, up 75 points.
The rupee too strengthened to its highest in nearly three months in afternoon trades on the back of on sustained selling of dollar after a sharp decline in Current Account Deficit (CAD) in the third quarter.
The rupee was trading at Rs 61.33 compared with the previous close of Rs 61.76 per dollar. The rupee was last seen near these levels on December 11 at Rs 61.25.
ICICI Bank, Reliance, ONGC, L&T and HDFC are the top gainers at this hour.
Around the Globe
Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped to a five-week high on Thursday as investors sentiment got a boost from news about the world's largest pension fund's allocation plan, and as a weaker yen boosted shares of exporters.
The Nikkei ended 1.6% higher to 15,134.75, the highest close since January 29.
The Topix rose 1.3% to 1,228.36, with 32 of its 33 subsectors in positive territory.
An advisory panel to the Government Pension Investment Fund said that GPIF need not stick to a "domestic-bond-centric portfolio" when the country is moving out of deflation.
International investors now eye the European Central Bank's policy meet later in the day. Any steps the ECB takes to support the still-fragile euro zone economy are likely to boost risk assets, though gains could be limited ahead of pivotal US payrolls data on Friday.
On Wednesday, International Monetary Fund officials called on the ECB to start buying public and private assets or extend more cheap long-term loans to banks, as well as cutting interest rates to a new record low.
The US markets on Wednesday finished lower as investors reacted to somewhat disappointing data. Payroll processor ADP released a report that the private sector added 139,000 jobs in February as compared to estimated increase of about 155,000 jobs. The report also showed a downward revision to the job growth in the previous month.
The Institute for Supply Management released a separate report showing that its non-manufacturing index fell to 51.6 in February from 54.0 in January, a reading above 50 indicates continued growth in the service sector.
Other shares
Financial Technologies (India) is trading higher by 3.3% at Rs 364, extending its previous day’s 5% gain, after Merrill Lynch acquired equity shares worth of Rs 8 crore from the open market.
IL&FS Transportation Networks (ITNL) is trading higher by 3% at Rs 117, extending its previous day’s 6% rally, after the board has approved issue of debentures worth of Rs 100 crore via private placements.
Ramco Systems is locked in upper circuit for third straight day, up 5% at Rs 243, also its 52-week high on the BSE, after the IT solutions provider signed a pact with Malaysia Airlines for providing a suite of enterprise-wide engineering solutions.
ALSTOM India is trading higher by 3% at Rs 360, extending its previous day’s 7% rally, after the company said it has won a contract worth Rs 679 crore from Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) to supply two 800MW supercritical boilers for Darlipalli Super Thermal Power Project (STPP) in Sundergarh, Odisha.
