Indian shares opened higher on Thursday after top U.S. Democrats expressed support for a $908bn stimulus proposal from a bipartisan group of senators.
Closer home, the Indian economy is coming out of the pandemic-induced degrowth and GDP growth will enter the positive territory in the fourth quarter of this fiscal, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said.
India's trade deficit in November fell an annual 21.93 percent to $9.96 billion, provisional data released by the government showed, as imports fell sharply compared to fall in exports.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex rose 104 points, or 0.2 percent, to 44,722 after erasing early losses to end on a flat note the previous day. The broader NSE Nifty index was up 42 points, or 0.3 percent, at 13,156.
Maruti Suzuki, HDFC Life, Tata Steel, Hindalco and GAIL climbed 2-3 percent, while Bharti Airtel, SBI Life, TCS, Axis Bank and Infosys were among the prominent decliners.
DHFL surged 5 percent on reports that lenders to the company have moved the Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to initiate personal insolvency proceedings against the erstwhile promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhwan.
TCS and Infosys were moving lower, a day after a U.S. court ruled against two H-1B visa regulations proposed by the Trump administration.
Larsen & Toubro gained 1 percent after divesting its U.K. unit Servowatch Systems.
Asian markets were trading mostly higher after a private survey showed China's services-sector activity rose at a faster pace in November, pointing to a further recovery of business activity in the world's second largest economy.
U.S. stocks rose broadly overnight as investors remained optimistic about potential coronavirus vaccines and a bleak private jobs report underscored the argument for fiscal stimulus.
U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer expressed hope that a deal could be reached "in the next few days".
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 both edged up around 0.2 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.1 percent.
European markets ended mixed on Wednesday as worries about rising prospects of a no-deal Brexit offset positive news about the U.K. granting approval to the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index ended little changed with a negative bias. The German DAX dropped half a percent, while France's CAC 40 index inched up marginally and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 1.2 percent.
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