BENGALURU - Indian shares touched a near four-week high on Thursday as metal and financial companies gained, with fears of imported inflation easing amid a decline in crude prices this week.

The NSE Nifty 50 index rose 0.89% to 16,132, while the S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.8% to 54,178.46.

Brent crude futures have fallen more than 9% this week as fears of a potential global recession have stoked concerns about oil demand.

India, the world's third-largest importer, stands to benefit from the drop in prices which could bring down inflation sharply, analysts said.

"Valuations have become slightly more comfortable in India. Macro data points coming in are strong and crude prices have fallen considerably, which is a huge positive for the country," said Siddhartha Khemka, head of retail research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

The Nifty metals index, which fell over 12.6% in June, rose 3.8% on Thursday. The Nifty bank index gained 1.7%, with many banks posting strong quarterly updates.

Analysts also said selling from foreign investors reduced this week compared to the week before, besides seeing some inflows, helping Indian markets stabilize.

Foreign investors bought Indian shares worth $270 million on Wednesday. They have sold a net $273 million in Indian equities so far this week, compared with $517 million in net disposal last week, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.

Among individual stocks, jeweller Titan surged as much as 7.9% after its first-quarter sales spiked 205%.

Kalyan Jewellers India rose as much as 6.2% on strong sales data for the June quarter.

Some slowdown in sales and demand was expected from the June quarter, but quarterly reports from the consumption-driven space are pointing to consistent strong demand, Khemka said.

(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman and Gaurav Dogra in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)