India's GIFT Nifty was trading at 21,987.50 as of 7:56 a.m. IST, indicating that the NSE Nifty 50 will open above Wednesday's close of 21,840.05.

Domestic blue-chip indexes Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex recovered from a negative start on Wednesday to close with gains of about 0.5% each, supported by state-owned banks and a sustained post-results rally in energy stocks.

"(Indian) markets have shown tremendous resilience amid weak global cues," said Ajit Mishra, senior vice president of technical research at Religare Broking, referring to the bounceback on Wednesday.

The consolidation of benchmark indexes near current levels might continue in the near future, Mishra added.

In contrast to Indian equities, other Asian markets fell in the previous session after hot U.S. inflation data reignited rate worries. They opened higher on Thursday. Wall Street equities closed higher overnight. [MKTS/GLOB]

Foreign institutional investors sold Indian shares worth 39.30 billion rupees (~ $473 million) on a net basis on Wednesday, while domestic institutional investors bought stocks worth 28.98 billion rupees.

STOCKS TO WATCH:

** Paytm: India's financial crime fighting agency is seeking details on overseas transactions by company's payments bank after RBI clampdown, according to sources.

** Hindustan Unilever: Consumer goods firm said it is in talks with Andhra Pradesh state to invest 3 billion rupees for palm oil production.

** Glenmark Pharmaceuticals: Generic drugmaker posted a quarterly loss for the second-straight time, hurt by higher expenses and costs related to remediation of its manufacturing sites.

** Vedanta: Parent Vedanta Resources may sell about $1 billion worth shares in the company to investment firm GQG Partners via block deals, television channel ET Now reported on Wednesday citing sources.

($1 = 83.0380 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)