Indian Indices Continue Rally, WPI Slows In December, And Top Stocks In Action

On Monday, share markets in India opened in green and ended on a positive note.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 251 points to end at 34,843, at all -time high levels. While the broader NSE Nifty ended the day higher by 60 points to close at 10,742.

Among BSE sectoral indices, bank index rose the most by 1.3%, followed by consumer durables stocks at 1.1%. HDFC Ltd and ICICI Bank were among the top gainers.

Top Stocks in Action Today

HDFC Ltd share price is likely to be in focus today after the company announced plans to raise up to Rs. 130 billion via QIP and preference shares. HDFC’s fund-raising is mainly aimed at investing in a preferential share issue by HDFC Bank, which will help the mortgage lender maintain its about 21% stake in the bank.

Last month, HDFC secured board approval to raise as much as Rs 130 billion. It said it may need capital for health insurance and acquisition of stressed assets in the real estate sector.

Capital First share price and IDFC share price are among the stocks to watch, after IDFC Bank announced its merger with the non-banking financial company (NBFC), Capital First over the weekend. The share swap ratio has been fixed at 139:10, which means 139 shares of IDFC Bank will be allotted for every 10 equity shares of Capital First.

Wholesale Inflation Drops in December

According to data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), retail inflation as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) decelerated to 3.58% in December, a marginal drop from of 3.9% in November 2017.

Wholesale inflation rate, measured by the wholesale price index (WPI), is a marker for price movements in bulk buys for traders and broadly mirrors trends in shop-end prices.

The index portrays new series of WPI data released by the government earlier this fiscal, with 2011-12 as the base year, replacing existing the base year of 2004-05.

Food articles turned out to be major drivers as the data showed that inflation of wholesale food articles fell to 4.7% in October, as against a 6% rise in the previous month. However, fuel inflation was up by 9.1% as compared to a rise of 8.8% in November.