The Indian market closed in the green for the second consecutive day on Thursday 18, stoked by a rally in banking names. Notably, India’s government is considering the possibility of increasing the maximum permitted share of foreign capital in private banks to 100%, and to 49% in state lenders. Recapping the benchmarks, the Nifty 50 rose 0.26% to 10,817, and the BSE Sensex advanced 0.51% to 35,2609.29. Among the best performers on the Nifty 50, ITC and Indiabulls added 2.76% and 2.84%, respectively. Among the underperformers, Bharti Infratel and Hindalco slid 6.09% and 3.44%, respectively. Among the top gainers on the BSE Sensex, ITC and HDFC Bank surged 3.01% and 2.42%, respectively. Adani and Tata Steel stood out among the worst performers, sinking 4.50% and 3%. In the currency market, the USD/INR pair edged up 0.02% to 63.85, while EUR/INR climbed 0.22% to 78.02. The 10-year government bond yield reached 7.445% HDFC Bank hit an all-time high, jumping 2.42%, while ICICI Bank increased 2.9%. MindTree soared 9.01% on news about a 37% upsurge in the company’s quarterly net profit. Consumer goods manufacturer Hindustan Unilever dipped 0.89% despite better-than-expected financial performance in Q3. At the same time, Bharti Infratel plunged 6.09% after reporting that quarterly profit dropped 5.6%, falling short of analysts’ expectations. From a technical standpoint, the BSE Sensex 30 has reached the upper bound of an ascending band near 35,500. Stochastic lines are sell-friendly, and are in overbought territory. As a result, the odds of a downward reversal are still limited.