Indian stocks closed higher Thursday after a session that swung between gains and losses for much of the day, with the BSE Sensex, the country's oldest and most widely watched benchmark, ending marginally higher and the NSE Nifty 50 closing at 25,299.
The standout move came from real estate stocks, which jumped roughly 4% as a group, outperforming the broader market by a wide margin. India's property sector has been closely tracked by investors this year as a barometer of domestic demand, since home sales and construction activity are sensitive to interest rates and consumer confidence in a way that export-oriented sectors are not.
The gains came during a busy stretch of India's corporate earnings season, when companies report results for the quarter and investors use those reports to judge whether share prices are keeping pace with underlying business performance. Volatile sessions like Thursday's are common during earnings periods, as individual stocks move sharply on results while the overall index can mask a wide range of outcomes underneath the surface.
India's stock market has remained a focus for global investors this year as one of the larger economies still generating solid growth, even as policymakers in the United States and elsewhere grapple with renewed inflation concerns. A steady domestic market in India, even an unsteady one like Thursday's, is often read by analysts as a sign that local investors are not overly rattled by the swings in U.S. rate expectations that have been moving markets elsewhere this week.
Investors will continue parsing quarterly earnings reports from Indian companies in the coming days, alongside any spillover effects from this week's U.S. inflation data and Federal Reserve commentary.
What are the Sensex and Nifty?
The Sensex is the benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Nifty 50 is the benchmark index of the National Stock Exchange, India's two main stock exchanges.
Why did realty stocks outperform?
Real estate shares rose about 4% as a group Thursday, outpacing the broader market, though the market report did not specify a single cause.