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Indian shares set to open lower; Kotak Mahindra Bank in focus

India's benchmark indexes are set to open marginally lower on Thursday, after gaining for four sessions in a row, with focus on Kotak Mahindra Bank after the Reserve Bank of India barred the lender from taking on new clients digitally.

India's GIFT Nifty (GIFc1) was trading at 22,354.50, as of 08:10 a.m. IST, indicating that the Nifty 50 NIFTY will open below its Wednesday's close of 22,402.40.

The benchmark Nifty and S&P BSE Sensex SENSEX indexes rose for a fourth session on Wednesday, gaining about 2% each over the period, helped by easing concerns over escalations in the Middle East tensions.

Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank KOTAKBANK will be in the spotlight after India's central bank barred the private lender from taking on new customers through its online and mobile banking channels.

Nifty 50 constituents Hindustan Unilever HINDUNILVR, Axis Bank AXISBANK and LTIMindtree LTIM will also be in focus after their results.

While Hindustan Unilever reported a 6% drop in profit, missing estimates, IT company LTI Mindtree LTIM posted a smaller-than-expected revenue in the March quarter, hurt by weakness in its banking vertical and client spending.

Axis Bank's AXISBANK fourth-quarter profit beat estimates.

Meanwhile, Asian markets opened lower, while U.S. equities closed marginally higher.

Investors await first-quarter U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) data due later in the day to assess the U.S. Federal Reserve's future rate trajectory.

STOCKS TO WATCH:

** Tata Consultancy Services TCS: Company signed a strategic agreement with Amazon Web Services to accelerate cloud transformation and offer artificial intelligence solutions to customers.

** AU Small Finance Bank AUBANK: Company reported fall in March-quarter net profit.

** Macrotech Developers LODHA: Company posted fall in consolidate net profit in the fourth quarter.

** Key earnings in focus: Bajaj Finance BAJFINANCE, IndusInd Bank INDUSINDBK, Nestle India NNESTLEIND, Tech Mahindra TECHM.

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