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Indian shares hit a near three-week high on Thursday, after two straight sessions of losses, led by gains in automobile and banking stocks, and a sharp fall in global oil prices.

The NSE Nifty 50 index was up 0.67% at 17,742.30, as of 0521 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.75% to 59,468.69. Both the benchmark indexes rose 1% earlier in the session to their highest since Aug. 19.

"Even with the muted global cues, domestic equities look to be doing well on fall in oil prices, which is going to be a positive for India," Anita Gandhi, director at Arihant Capital Markets said, adding that valuations look attractive due to a recent correction.

Foreign investors have purchased a net $330.4 million worth of Indian shares so far this month, after pouring $6.44 billion in August, Refinitiv data showed.

Asian stocks also gained, tracking a rally in U.S. equities overnight, while oil prices tumbled to over seven-month lows on demand concerns following downbeat Chinese trade data. [O/R] [MKTS/GLOB]

India, the world's third-largest importer of oil, benefits from a fall in prices as it brings down imported inflation.

The Nifty auto and bank indexes climbed between 1% and 1.8%, respectively. Automaker Mahindra and Mahindra added the most to the benchmark, rising 2.8%.

Among other individual stock moves, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Ltd jumped as much as 15.5% to hit an over five-year high. The company said late on Wednesday it would expand its production capacity by setting up a manufacturing unit in the Indian city of Kolkata. (https://bit.ly/3RDDBXK)

(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru and additional reporting by Gaurav Dogra; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Dhanya Ann Thoppil)