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Heavy buying helped Indian equity markets to remain strong in late morning session, on the back of positive cues from other Asian markets. Traders got relief, after the Finance Ministry said in its latest monthly economic report that India’s inflation trajectory in the coming months will be influenced more by the geo-political situation due to the war in Europe and its impact on supply chains and commodity prices. However, the country is better placed than most to “weather the storm” and achieve growth of close to 8 per cent in the current fiscal year.

Besides, India’s industrial production inched up 1.9% in March 2022 from 1.7% in February 2022. Factory output measured in terms of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had recorded a growth of 24.2 per cent in March 2021. For the month of March 2022, the Quick Estimates of IIP with base 2011-12 stood at 148.3. For the full fiscal 2021-22, IIP grew 11.3 per cent as against an 8.4 per cent contraction in 2020-21.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, after export prices in South Korea advanced 1.0 percent on month in April, the Bank of Korea said on Friday - slowing from the 6.2 percent increase in March. On a yearly basis, export prices jumped 21.4 percent, down from 23.4 percent in the previous month. Individually, prices for agricultural exports rose 0.2 percent on month and 20.1 percent on year, while manufacturing products gained 1.0 percent on month and 21.4 percent on year.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 53550.06, up by 619.75 points or 1.17% after trading in a range of 53131.69 and 53625.25. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 2.18%, while Small cap index was up by 2.18%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 3.42%, Industrials up by 3.11%, Consumer Durables up by 2.43%, FMCG up by 2.43% and Capital Goods up by 2.41%, while Telecom down by 0.71% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Titan Co up by 4.09%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.56%, Sun Pharma up by 3.46%, Larsen & Toubro up by 3.06% and Hindustan Unilever up by 2.84%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 2.69%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.23%, ICICI Bank down by 0.58%, Power Grid down by 0.53% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, raising the probabilities of an interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) early next month to tame prices, India's headline inflation surged for a seventh straight month to touch an 8-year high of 7.79 per cent in April on rising food and fuel prices. Retail inflation (CPI) in April soared to a 95-month high on the back of a surge in prices across all major commodity groups. It was way back in May 2014 that CPI inflation was at 8.3 per cent. Inflation has remained above the RBI's comfort zone of 6 per cent for four months in a row mainly due to the Russia-Ukraine war which has impacted the prices of commodities across the globe.

The National Statistical Office (NSO) under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in its data has showed that the Rural CPI (General) in April 2022 stood at 8.38 per cent as against 7.66 per cent in March. The Urban CPI (General) stood at 7.09 per cent in April as against 6.12 per cent in March. The index value for Rural, Urban and Combined CPI (General) stood at 170.8, 169.2 and 170.1 respectively, in April 2022.

As per the data, inflation in the food basket rose to 8.38 per cent in April from 7.68 per cent in the preceding month and 1.96 per cent in the year-ago month. The rate of price rise in 'fuel and light' category in the retail inflation basket quickened to 10.80 per cent in April this year from 7.52 per cent in the preceding month. In the 'oils and fats' category, inflation remained at an elevated level of 17.28 per cent (18.79 per cent in March 2022) during the month, as Ukraine is one of the major sunflower oil producers in the world and India imports a major portion of the commodity from the war-ravaged country.

The Price data are collected from selected 1114 urban Markets and 1181 villages covering all States/UTs through personal visits by field staff of Field Operations Division of NSO, MoSPI on a weekly roster. During the month of April 2022, NSO collected prices from 99.9 % villages and 98.3% urban Markets while the Market-wise prices reported therein were 90.3% for rural and 93.7% for urban.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16021.70, up by 213.70 points or 1.35% after trading in a range of 15886.60 and 16032.30. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 9.29%, Titan Co up by 4.12%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.66%, Sun Pharma up by 3.56% and Bajaj Auto up by 3.46%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 2.59%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.16%, Hindalco down by 1.05%, ICICI Bank down by 0.56% and Power Grid down by 0.38% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; Nikkei 225 surged 640.33 points or 2.49% to 26,389.05, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 210.45 points or 1.35% to 15,827.13, Hang Seng increased 387.02 points or 2% to 19,767.36, Jakarta Composite soared 7.04 points or 0.11% to 6,606.88, KOSPI rose 46.79 points or 1.83% to 2,596.87, Straits Times advanced 34.67 points or 1.1% to 3,199.85 and Shanghai Composite gained 17.13 points or 0.56% to 3,072.12.

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