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Indian shares are likely to open marginally higher on Thursday, with investors awaiting a raft of blue-chip earnings for fresh triggers amid foreign fund outflows.

The Gift Nifty was trading at 25,033, as of 07:44 a.m. IST, indicating that the benchmark Nifty 50 will open slightly above Wednesday's closing levels of 24,971.30.

The Nifty 50 and the S&P BSE Sensex ended lower for a second straight session on Wednesday.

Rich local valuations, foreign funds flowing into China after Beijing's stimulus announcements and disappointing earnings of blue-chip companies like IT major TCS and oil-focussed conglomerate Reliance Industries have pressured investor sentiment.

Investors will now eye earnings of Nifty 50 members such as Infosys, Wipro, Axis Bank and Nestle India, all due later in the day.

The Nifty 50 has declined about 5% from a record high hit in the last week of September, when China unveiled its most aggressive measures since the pandemic. Foreign investors have pulled out $8.1 billion from domestic equities so far in October, the highest since March 2020.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers for the thirteenth straight session on Wednesday, offloading a net 34.36 billion rupees ($409 million) worth of stocks.

On the day, Asian peers outside Japan rose on expectations of China announcing support measures for its ailing property sector. Overnight, Wall Street equities closed higher. [MKTS/GLOB]

Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor India's record $3.3 billion initial public offering was subscribed 42% on its second day of bidding. The share sale closes on Thursday.

STOCKS TO WATCH:

Bajaj Auto: Two-wheeler maker posted higher September-quarter profit helped by a jump in motorcycle sales.

UltraTech Cement: Cement maker commissions additional capacity at its Tamil Nadu unit.

Bharti Airtel: Telecom firm is in talks with Nokia for multi-billion dollar 5G contract, Reuters reported exclusively.

($1 = 84.0150 Indian rupees)