US Market extends gain on Wednesday

The US stock market finished higher for second consecutive session on Wednesday, 12 January 2022, after US consumer prices data that largely met expectations eased some investor concerns about faster-than-expected US interest rate hikes.

The Labor Department's highly anticipated report on consumer price inflation in December showed that the U.S. consumer price index surging a whopping 7% in December from 6.8% in November, but in line with forecasts. Core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, were up by 5.5% year-over-year in December compared to the 4.9% spike in November.

Investors appeared to be comforted by the fact that inflation was not worse than feared, and that the Federal Reserve was unlikely to be more aggressive than expected in hiking interest rates and tightening monetary policy.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index advanced 38.30 points, or 0.11%, to 36,290.32. The S&P500 index added 13.28 points, or 0.28%, to 4,726.35. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index grew 34.94 points, or 0.23%, to 15,188.39.

Total shares volume turnover on U.S. exchanges stood at 8.71 billion shares, down from yesterday's 8.74 billion shares. Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE exchange by 1711 to 1625 and 164 closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 1971 issues advanced, 2698 issues declined, and 253 issues unchanged.

Total 10 of 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes advanced, with top performing issues were materials (up 0.95%), information technology (up 0.44%), utilities (up 0.35%), and real estate (up 0.29%), while bottom performing issues included healthcare (down 0.26%).

Shares of Dish Network lifted 2.8% following news that the company is in merger talks with DirectTV.

Among Indian ADR, WNS Holdings added 0.98% to $89.27, Tata Motors added 0.56% to $34.32, ICICI Bank added 0.68% to $22.22, and INFOSYS rose 2.92% to $25.75. Wipro fell 8.52% to $8.70 and Dr Reddys Labs fell 0.47% to $63.13. Azure Power Global unchanged at $15.97 and HDFC Bank closed steady at $71.72.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News