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Indian equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty50 are likely to start Thursday's session on a strong note tracking sharp gains across global markets, after the Fed announced its first rate hike in more than three years, as expected. At 8:54 am, Singapore Exchange (SGX) Nifty futures -- an early indicator of the Nifty50 index -- were up 250 points or 1.5 percent at 17,257. Investors continued to track updates on the Russia-Ukraine war and increasing COVID-19 cases in China closely.

Equities in other Asian markets jumped on Thursday tracking overnight gains on Wall Street, after the Federal Reserve approved a 0.25 percentage point hike in pandemic-era interest rates -- its first increase in more than three years. Fed officials signalled rate rises at each of the six remaining meetings this year. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was up 2.5 percent in early hours.

Japan's Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged three and four percent respectively. China's Shanghai Composite was up 1.2 percent, South Korea's KOSPI 1.9 percent and Singapore's Straits Times 1.1 percent.