Market trim gains post WPI data

Benchmark indices continued the uptrend into afternoon trades on Thursday on strong buying led by banks, auto and capital goods heavyweights. ICICI, Tata Motors, Larsen & Turbo, RIL and HDFC Bank were the top Sensex gainers and collectively contributed over 169 points to the Sensex.  

The sentiment on Thursday was largely boosted by US Federal Reserve's incoming boss -- Janet Yellen who said the US economy and labour markets were functioning “far short of their potential and had to improve before the stimulus programme could be rolled back".  This gave a fresh boost to hopes of easy liquidity to continue its eastwards flow towards emerging markets such as India, facilitated by FIIs.

Yellen, who for the first time has expressed her views on monetary policy after June, said this in a testimony prepared for her nomination hearing on late Wednesday before the Senate Banking Committee.  

Yellen said: “A strong economy will ultimately enable the Fed to reduce its monetary accommodation and reliance on unconventional policy tools such as asset purchases. I believe that supporting the recovery today is the surest path to returning to a more normal approach to monetary policy.”

Also, central banker -- Raghuram Rajan's attempt to talk up the rupee and calm equity and bond markets, a day earlier, calmed nerves too. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, Raghuram Rajan, expressed comfort on Wednesday about core inflation and highlighted the narrowing current account deficit.
 
Key indices on Thursday are headed to break their 7-day losing streak after touching their all-time high levels in the run-up to Diwali.

At 2:28pm, the 30-share Sensex was up 230 points or 1.14% at 20,424 levels and the broader 50-share Nifty was up 71 points at 6,061 levels.

The rupee rose to as high as 62.9525 to the dollar - its highest since November 11, recovering after tumbling to a two-month low of 63.90 on Wednesday.  It is currently trading at 63.16-a-dollar.

Meanwhile, Wholesale Prices Inflation (WPI) numbers which were announced on Thursday, accelerated to an eight-month high of 7.0% in October, mainly driven by higher fuel and manufactured goods prices, government data showed on Thursday. WPI had risen 6.46% in September.  

On the global front, Asian stocks bounced from six-week lows on Thursday, spurred by Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen's dovish comments.

The comments sent U.S. stocks surging and supported bond prices, while the dollar came under pressure, although it narrowed its looses during the Asian session.

On the sectoral front, BSE Bankex, Capital Goods and Auto indices have spurted by 3% each. Sectors like Realty, Power, Oil & Gas, Metals, Consumer Durables, PSU and FMCG have gained between 1-2%.

The main gainers on the Sensex at this hour include Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, L&T, Tata Steel, M&M, Bharti Airtel, Hero Moto and BHEL, all surging between 2-5%.

Tata Motors has surged over 5% to Rs 385, recovering more than half of its losses recorded after announcements of July-September (Q2) earnings.

On the losing side, Coal India is trading lower by 3% at Rs 277 on NSE in otherwise strong market after reported a lower than expected net profit at Rs 3,052 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2013 (Q2), due to lower selling prices and higher wage and diesel costs. Analyst on an average had expected profit of Rs 3,399 crore.

The broader markets are performing in line with the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices have gained by over 1%.

The market breadth in BSE remains firm with 1,351 shares advancing and 824 shares declining.