Indian shares held onto gains in the afternoon session on Thursday, tracking positive Asian equities, as investor sentiment improved following a historic Wall Street rally.

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US stocks soared with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rocketing more than 1,000 points for the first time on Wednesday.

At 12.17 pm, the Sensex traded with gains of nearly 274 points, or 0.77 percent, at 35,923, while the Nifty surged by nearly 77 points, or 0.72 percent, to trade at 10,806.

Broader markets slightly underperformed with the Nifty MidCap trading a tad below half a percent. The BSE MidCap was up half a percent. Nifty IT was trading with over 2 percent higher, leading 40 advancing sectors. Only Nifty Infra, BSE Telecom and BSE Power were down.

Among the top index gainers, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Gail, Reliance rallied between 2.17 and 2.47 percent, extending gains from morning session. Tata Consultancy Services shares gained nearly 2 percent. Among financial names, IndusInd Bank and Yes Bank shares surged by up to 1.56 percent.

Downstream public sector companies of BPCL and HPCL dipped more than a percent. Coal India also slipped by a percent. Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto, Power Grid and Larsen & Toubro dipped by up to 1.43 percent.

The rupee traded at 70.34 per US dollar at 12.26 pm. The home currency opened at 70.20 per US dollar against a previous close of 70.07 against the greenback.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei surged more than 750 points, or 3.88 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped by half a percent.

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Disclosure: Network18, the parent company of CNBCTV18.com, is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.

First Published:Dec 27, 2018 12:46 PM IST