Equity benchmark indices climbed in early trade on Thursday amid continuous foreign fund inflows and buying in index major Reliance Industries.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 77.64 points to 61,270.94 in early trade. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 27.7 points to 18,117.55.

From the Sensex firms, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finance, Titan, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv, State Bank of India, Tata Consultancy Services, NTPC and Reliance Industries were the biggest gainers.

Power Grid, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, ITC, Maruti and ICICI Bank were the laggards.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers on Wednesday as they bought equities worth Rs 1,338 crore, according to exchange data.

In Asian markets, Shanghai and Hong Kong quoted in the green, while Seoul traded lower.

The US markets had ended in the negative territory on Wednesday.

"From the market perspective, more important than the expected dovish rate hike of 25 basis points by the Fed is the Fed chief's comment that "the case of avoiding a recession is more likely than having a recession". Market is likely to remain resilient with limited volatility," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

The strength of the rupee and the continued buying by FIIs will impart strength to the market, Vijayakumar added.

The US Federal Reserve reinforced its fight against high inflation on Wednesday by raising its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to the highest level in 16 years.

But the Fed also signalled that it may now pause its streak of 10 rate hikes, which have made borrowing for consumers and businesses steadily more expensive.

"Fed hike seems like this is the last rate hike, but rate cuts could happen later only if there is significant deterioration in economic activity or inflation cools off. This led to sell off in US markets but may not have a material impact on India in the short run as RBI has paused the rate hikes and there is weakness in crude oil price," said Hemang Jani, Head - Equity Strategy, Broking & Distribution, MOFSL.

The BSE benchmark had declined 161.41 points or 0.26 per cent to settle at 61,193.30 on Wednesday. The Nifty fell 57.80 points or 0.32 per cent to end at 18,089.85.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude gained 0.37 per cent to USD 72.60 per barrel.

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