Indian Share Indices Extend Gains for Third Successive Session

UPDATE - follow-up to Markets extend gains for 3rd day; Sensex ends above 81,900 on FII inflows, lower crude oil: Indian benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty ended marginally higher on Thursday, marking their third straight day of gains. The 30-share BSE Sensex advanced 31.61 points, or 0.04%, to settle at 81,911.01. During the day, it hit a high of 82,325.61 and a low of 81,576.15. The 50-share NSE Nifty rose 44.30 points, or 0.18%, to finish at 25,299.35.

Market Movers

Among the Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India, Bharat Electronics, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank and Eternal led the gains as major winners. Hindustan Unilever, Maruti, Power Grid and Tata Consultancy Services ended the session as laggards. Foreign Institutional Investors purchased equities worth ₹12,563.33 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data. Meanwhile, Brent crude dipped 0.44% to trade at $92.50 per barrel.

Expert View and Global Cues

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Investments Ltd, noted that Indian equities traded near flat as buying in financials and realty offset profit-taking in IT, FMCG and automobiles following a recent sharp rally. He added that softer crude provided macro relief while global tech volatility and a hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation print kept global yields in focus. Across Asia, indices including South Korea's Kospi, Japan's Nikkei 225, Shanghai's SSE Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed lower, while U.S. markets finished higher on Wednesday.

Context

Stock markets often react to shifts in foreign fund flows and global commodity prices like crude oil. Sustained investments by institutional players generally help provide underlying support to domestic benchmark indices.