Indian share market benchmarks BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 were set to open in positive territory on Thursday, a day of weekly F&O expiry, following a one-day blip. Market participants will focus on weekly F&O expiry, oil prices, rupee’s trajectory, stock-specific action, and the ongoing RBI policy meet. Asian stock markets were trading strong on Thursday, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng leading the gains. While mainland China stock markets remain closed on Thursday for the holidays. Analysts say even if the global markets show some recovery, Nifty could after a small recovery again run into profit-taking.

SGX Nifty in green: Nifty futures were trading 134.50 points or 0.76 per cent up at 17763 in early trade on Thursday.

Global watch: Asian stocks markets were seen trading with strong gains on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.43 per cent while the Topix index climbed 0.66 per cent. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 1.09 per cent. In overnight trade on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 0.41 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.47 per cent.

FII and DII activity: On Wednesday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 802.81 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth Rs 998.69 crore on a net basis in the Indian stock market.

Moody’s raises rating outlook to stable for Indian companies, banks: Moody’s Investors Service on Wednesday raised the rating outlook for 18 Indian corporates and banks, including Reliance Industries, Infosys, SBI and Axis Bank, to ‘stable’ from ‘negative’. This follows the upgrade by the US-based rating agency in India’s sovereign rating outlook to ‘stable’ from ‘negative’ on Tuesday. The agency had affirmed the sovereign rating at ‘Baa3’.

LIC IPO: The government may not be required to amend any legislation to allow foreign participation in the proposed initial share sale of insurance giant Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), sources said. Foreign participation would be allowed as per the listing norms of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the extant sectoral FDI guidelines, they added