BENGALURU: Indian shares advanced on Wednesday, aided by strong quarterly updates from finance companies and banks, while inflation concerns kept investors cautious a day ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy decision.

The Nifty 50 closed 0.91% higher at 17,557.05, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.99% to 59,689.31. Both the benchmarks have extended gains for a fourth session in a row, the longest winning streak in four months.

Still, analysts expect domestic equities to be muted ahead of corporate quarterly earnings from next week.

“Value stocks will win over growth stocks,” said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice president of research at SMC Securities, identifying capital goods, private banks, hotels and infrastructure as preferred sectors.

Eleven of the 13 major sectoral indexes advanced, with high weightage financials and IT rising 1.14% and 1.20%, respectively.

Bajaj Finance Ltd jumped nearly 1% and HDFC Bank Ltd climbed 2.68% after reporting strong new loan growth and deposits growth, respectively, in the previous quarter.