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India's equity benchmarks are expected to continue their uptrend for a fifth consecutive session on Wednesday, driven by optimism over strong pre-earnings updates, although profit booking is likely to cap some gains.

Gift Nifty futures were trading at 25,219 points as of 7:40 a.m. IST, indicating that the benchmark Nifty 50 will open above Tuesday's close of 25,108.3.

The Reserve Bank of India last week allowed banks to fund acquisitions and raised the cap on loans for buying shares at IPOs, as part of a raft of measures to boost bank lending.

This, along with positive pre-earnings updates from banks for the September quarter, boosted benchmark shares, with the Nifty and the Sensex rising about 2% each in the last four sessions.

Investors will closely watch the second-quarter earnings that will kick off for blue-chip companies on Thursday, starting with information technology major Tata Consultancy Services.

Primary market action will also be in focus, with the final day of subscriptions for Tata Capital's IPO and the second day for LG Electronics India's issue.

Foreign portfolio investors snapped a ten-session selling streak on Tuesday and lapped up shares worth 14.41 billion rupees ($162.33 million) on a net basis, as per provisional data.

STOCKS TO WATCH

** Titan Company posts 18% growth in domestic sales for the second quarter, slower than the 25% it registered in the same period last year, as soaring gold prices stunted demand for higher carat jewellery

** Automaker Tata Motors' Jaguar Land Rover says second-quarter sales volume declined after a six-week shutdown due to a cyber incident

** Realtor Lodha Developers says pre-sales rose 7% year-on-year in the September quarter and collections jumped 13% during the period

($1 = 88.7680 Indian rupees)