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The Sensex was up over 300 points and the Nifty was seen heading towards 6,100 levels, amid strong Asian cues, led by financials and index heavyweights.
At 10:25AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 322 points or 1.6% at 20,516 and the 50-share Nifty was up 98 points or 1.6% at 6,088.
Asian share indices surged after Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen's encouraging comments that the Fed may continue its monetary stimulus measures to support the US economy. The Nikkei was up 2.4%, while Shanghai Composite was up 0.5%. Hang Seng and Straits Times were both up just over 0.8% each.
Rate sensitive sectors were among the top gainers among the sectoral indices on the BSE with Bankex up 2.7% followed by Realty, Capital Goods and Auto indices.
Bank shares firmed up after RBI governor Raghuram Rajan on Wednesday stepped in to steady frayed nerves and said there were no fundamental reasons for weakening of the rupee.
In the banking pack, ICICI Bank was up nearly 4%, HDFC Bank surged 1.8%, and HDFC was up 1.7% while SBI gained 1.9%.
Index heavyweights Reliance Ind was up 1.5% and ITC gained nearly 1%.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is trading higher by 2% at Rs 274 after reporting a better-than-expected 2.8% year-on-year (yoy) jump in net profit at Rs 6,064 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2013 (Q2FY14) even after paying record fuel subsidy. The state-owned oil and exploration firm had profit of Rs 5,897 crore in a year ago quarter.
Sun Pharma pared early gains and was up 0.3%. The pharma major's September quarter were way ahead of Street estimates. Net sales at Rs 4,192 crore marked a growth of 58 per cent over the same quarter last year. This was above Bloomberg's estimates of Rs 3,768 crore. The pharma major has also upped its sales growth guidance for FY14.
Other gainers in the Sensex include, Tata Motors, L&T, Infosys, and M&M among others.
Among other shares, Gillette India has dipped over 6% at Rs 1,930 in otherwise firm market after the promoters received most of the bids in offer for sale (OFS) at a price of Rs 1,926.
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices extended gains and were up 1.2% each.
Market breadth was positive with 1,124 gainers and 514 losers on the BSE.
