India Stocks-Financials lead Indian shares higher after recent decline

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 .NSEI was up 0.35% at 23,996.80 and the BSE Sensex .BSESN 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 .NSEBANK, financials .NIFTYFIN, private lenders .NIFPVTBNK and state-owned banks .NIFTYPSU 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."