The overall market breadth stood positive as 2,195 shares advanced while 1,123 declined on BSE.New Delhi: The Indian equity benchmarks on Thursday continued to trade higher for the third straight session on strong global cues.

Investors' sentiment improved after a study showed hospitalisation risk from Omicron was lower compared with the Delta coronavirus variant.

According to research by London's Imperial College, the risk of hospitalisation for patients with the Omicron variant is 40 per cent to 45 per cent lower than for patients with the Delta variant.The benchmark BSE Sensex rose 385 points or 0.68 per cent to close at 57,315; while the broader NSE Nifty moved 117 points or 0.69 per cent up to settle at 17,073.Mid- and small-cap shares jumped as Nifty Midcap 100 index climbed 0.90 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index surged 1.27 per cent.13 out of 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the National Stock Exchange -- settled in green.

Nifty FMCG, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty IT jumped as much as 1.56 per cent.On the stock-specific front, Power Grid stood as the top Nifty gainer as the stock soared 3.67 per cent to Rs 208.95.

Shares of Indian Oil Corp (IOC), ONGC, ITC and and Bajaj Finance also witnessed gains.On the flipside, Divi's Lab, JSW Steel, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma and UltraTech Cements fell as much as 1.76 per cent.On the BSE index, Power Grid,ITC, Bajaj Finance, Infosys, NTPC, Titan and Tech Mahindra attracted the most gains with their shares rising as much as 3.70 per cent.The overall market breadth stood positive as 2,195 shares advanced while 1,123 declined on BSE."Omicron was the only fear for markets.

Once they know it is not severe, market recovery is likely possible because corporate earnings are going to be very good with crude and commodity prices cooling off.

Margin expansion is likely," AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital, told news agency Reuters."This correction was an opportunity to buy.

Fears of the third wave of Covid-19 have mellowed down, which is positive for markets," he added.Domestic and global markets -- which had plunged as much as 3 per cent on Monday (December 20) -- have staged a recovery in the past three sessions.Meanwhile, shares of pharmacy chain operator Medplus Health Services made a strong debut at the exchanges and got listed at a premium of 31 per cent over its issue price.