Indian shares opened higher on Thursday, boosted by Reliance Industries and financial stocks, with sentiment also helped by gains in broader Asian markets. The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index rose 0.56% to 14,225.80 and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex climbed 0.56% to 48,442.48 by 0348 GMT. Both indexes hit record highs in the first four trading sessions of the new year, helped by continued foreign fund inflows and progress on COVID-19 vaccines. Foreign investors pumped more than $20 billion into Indian equities last year, according to Refinitiv Eikon data. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5%, as investors looked past violence in Washington and bet on a large U.S. fiscal stimulus package after Democrat victories in Senate runoffs in Georgia. In Mumbai trading, market heavyweight Reliance rose 0.9% and was the top boost to the Nifty 50, while the Nifty Bank Index gained 1%.