India's BSE Sensex closed about 0.2% higher at 78,080 on Thursday after a volatile session, reversing earlier declines and snapping its recent losing streak. Lower oil prices, a positive earnings season and softer U.S. inflation data, which eased expectations of a near-term Fed rate hike, supported sentiment, but uncertainty in the Middle East kept gains in check. India's annual inflation for July rose to 4.45%, though the reading is still seen as unlikely to prompt a central bank rate increase in the coming months. Stock-specific developments remained important: Laurus Labs, Lenskart, Adani Energy and Groww are set to join the MSCI Global Standard Index on Sept. 1, potentially drawing about $598 million, $352 million, $310 million and $256 million respectively in passive inflows; Eternal, Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports are also expected to benefit from higher MSCI weights, while Reliance Industries and Jio Financial could face passive outflows. IndiGo led gainers with a 2.9% rise, followed by NTPC, BEL and L&T, each up 2%, while ICICI Bank fell 1.3%, Titan lost 1.1%, Reliance Industries slipped 0.8% and UltraTech Cement declined 0.7% after a block transaction involving 2.51 million shares, or 0.86% of its equity.