Published on 09/03/2026 at 12:57 am EDT
(Reuters) - Indian shares rose on Thursday, led by lenders, after they mobilised a higher-than-expected $136.4 billion through the RBI's foreign-currency deposit and borrowing schemes, bolstering liquidity ahead of the festive season.
The Nifty 50 was up 0.35% at 23,996.80 and the BSE Sensex added 0.35% to 76,820.99 as of 10:21 a.m. IST.
The benchmarks have each fallen about 1% over the past three sessions, pressured by climbing crude prices and rising global bond yields as investors reassessed the prospect of interest rates staying higher for longer.
Nine of the 16 major sectors advanced. Banks, financials private lenders and state-owned banks climbed about 1% each.
Banks mobilized more than $60 billion in deposits from non-resident Indians during the final 10 days of the RBI's swap scheme, taking total inflows to $136 billion.
This exceeds the upper-end estimate of $100 billion, boosting liquidity ahead of the festive season and potentially helping keep interest rates lower, Jefferies said.
"The huge FCNR (B) mobilisation by banks will help improve their net interest margins and this is a positive for banking stocks," said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments, adding "the implication from the market perspective is that the rupee will stabilise imparting confidence to FIIs."
Small and mid-caps rose 1.1% and 0.2%.
RBL Bank gained 4%. Citi termed the $3.4 billion the lender mobilised under RBI swap facility an "outsized haul for a mid-sized bank, that reshapes the earnings narrative".
ICICI Bank added about 1.5% and State Bank of India rose 1%. They were among the lenders with the highest mobilisation.
Among other stocks, consumer company Godrej Consumer fell 4.2% after multiple brokerages projected near-term pressure due to sustained palm oil inflation and concerns over execution efficiency.
IT company Hexaware fell 3.8% after its CEO exit spurred concerns over growth outlook.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
By Bharath Rajeswaran

Sumber : Reuters