Mumbai, Jan 31 (IANS): Sensex and Nifty logged strong gains during the afternoon session of the trade on Thursday amid a surge in global markets as the US Federal Reserve decided to keep the interest rates unchanged.

Shares of IT companies led the gains as BSE IT index rose close to 2 per cent. Key sectors banking, finance as well as oil and gas stocks also surged over 1 per cent.

"US Fed's decision to keep the interest rates unchanged is good for the emerging markets. Investors are also upbeat owing to the healthy Q3 results by large caps," Rusmik Oza, Head-Fundamental Research, Kotak Securities, told IANS.

"...also the short covering ahead of the F&O expiry due later in the day gave a push to the markets."

Oza said the upcoming interim Budget may not have a material impact on the markets because "it would just be announcements. Investors will focus on the July budget, which will be of much greater importance."

At 2.15 p.m., the BSE Sensex rose 507.67 points or 1.43 per cent at 36,098.92 while the Nifty of the NSE jumped 132.95 points to trade at 10,784.75.

Stock-wise, Infosys gained the most, up 3.43 per cent among the 30 stock Sensex followed by Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank and HDFC.

The only laggards were Yes Bank, down 2.08 per cent followed by HCL Tech, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Finance and ICICI Bank.