Benchmark equity indices climbed in early trade on Wednesday amid buying in market blue-chip stocks Reliance Industries and Tata Consultancy Services.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 252.62 points to 76,709.21 in early trade. The NSE Nifty went up by 82.25 points to 23,347.10.

Among the 30 Sensex companies, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Power Grid, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services and Reliance Industries were the major gainers.

Titan, Asian Paints, IndusInd Bank and Hindustan Unilever were among the laggards.

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

US markets ended mostly higher on Tuesday.

"The 32 per cent decline in India VIX during the last 5 days indicates that the days of heightened volatility are over and the market has entered a consolidation phase. From now on the focus will be on fundamentals and news flows," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Tonight's US inflation numbers and the Fed policy outcome will influence the direction of the global equity market, he added.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.42 per cent to USD 82.26 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 111.04 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

The BSE benchmark declined 33.49 points or 0.04 per cent to settle at 76,456.59 on Tuesday. In a volatile trade, the Nifty ended marginally up by 5.65 points or 0.02 per cent at 23,264.85.

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