India’s stock benchmarks likely to open higher on central bank’s lending boost

India’s equity benchmarks are set to open higher on Friday, after snapping their longest daily losing streak in seven months in the previous session, as the central bank’s dovish pause and reforms to enhance bank lending boosted sentiment.

Gift Nifty futures were trading at 24,929.5 points as of 8:01 a.m. IST, indicating that the Nifty 50 will open above Wednesday’s close of 24,836.3.

Both the benchmarks Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex rose about 0.9% each and ended an eight-session losing run on Wednesday, bolstered by gains in financials after the Reserve Bank of India eased rules for lending to capital markets and large corporates.

Indian markets were closed on Thursday for a holiday.

“The RBI’s optimism on softening inflation and rising economic growth in fiscal year 2026 has boosted investor sentiment,” said Prashanth Tapse, senior vice president of research at Mehta Equities.

Analysts say that the RBI’s plan to increase limits on lending against shares and reduce risk weights for non-bank lenders for infrastructure projects have also lifted financials and overall sentiment, which was weighed down by US tariffs on Indian goods and a steep hike in visa fees.

The optimism was reflected in fund flows as domestic institutional investors remained net buyers of Indian stocks for the 27th session in a row on Wednesday, with net inflows of 28.62 billion rupees ($322.5 million).

However, foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth 15.45 billion rupees, remaining net sellers for eight consecutive sessions. Meanwhile, WeWork India Management’s 30 billion-rupee IPO will open for subscription later in the day.

The issue will be a pure offer for sale (OFS), implying that the company will not receive any proceeds from the issue.

The Indian unit of the US-based shared office space provider has set a price band of 615-648 rupees per share for its IPO, targeting a valuation of 86.85 billion rupees, according to Reuters calculations.