New Delhi: Equity benchmark indices climbed in early trade on Thursday ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's interest rate decision, amid a rally in global markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 321.42 points to 72,473.42 in early trade. The Nifty climbed 80.55 points to 22,011.05.

Among the Sensex firms, PowerGrid jumped over 4 per cent after the company posted a 10.5 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 4,028.25 crore in the December quarter, mainly on the back of higher revenues.

HCL Technologies, IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services and NTPC were the other major gainers.

ITC, Maruti, Bajaj Finance and Asian Paints were among the laggards.

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

The US markets ended with gains on Wednesday.

"The mother market US is setting new records and this provides the support to facilitate new records in India, too. The bulls are again on the front foot and will use any positive news to push the market forward.

"The event which will be closely watched today would be what RBI says," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.42 per cent to USD 79.54 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,691.02 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

The BSE benchmark declined 34.09 points or 0.05 per cent to settle at 72,152 on Wednesday. The Nifty ended marginally up by 1.10 points or 0.01 per cent to 21,930.50.

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