Indices come off day`s lows

Equity indices came off the day`s low and traded near the flat line in mid morning trade. The Nifty regained the 18,200 mark after hitting a low of 18,163.80.

At 11:36 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 3.07 points at 61,146.59. The Nifty 50 index was up 11.35 points or 0.06% at 18,223.75.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.1% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was gained 0.45%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,597 shares rose and 1,697 shares fell. A total of 108 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

India`s retail inflation rose sharply to 5.59% in the month of December from 4.91% in November, pushed up by rising prices of manufactured items, data released by the government showed on Wednesday. Inflation as measured by Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 4.59% in the year-ago period.

Separately, industrial production for the month of November grew by 1.4% as compared to (-)1.6 % in the same month last year. IIP surged 3.2% in the month of October.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Bank index slipped 205 points or 0.53% to 38,521.05, snapping its four-day winning streak. The index rose 3.3% in the past four days.

HDFC Bank (down 1.42%), RBL Bank (down 1.4%), Axis Bank (down 0.92%), IndusInd Bank (down 0.64%) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 0.44%) were top losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

RITES rose 0.09%. The company and the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IIT-R) entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore viable business opportunities in the infrastructure sector.

Under the agreement, RITES and Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IIT-R) will collaborate for knowledge sharing, research and development and technical services, including consultancy assignments etc. The partnership is expected to bring in good practices by leveraging one another`s expertise and to push the vision of building sustainable and robust infrastructure in the country and abroad.

Route Mobile rose 0.65%. The company on Wednesday announced that it enabled CPaaS solutions for Bank of Maharashtra to transform its customer communications with WhatsApp Banking Service. WhatsApp banking services will be available to both Bank of Maharashtra`s customers as well as non-customers, with basic banking facilities and information about banks products and services.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks were trading mixed on Thursday as Wall Street saw gains despite a red-hot inflation report that set market expectations for rate hikes.

US stocks moved slightly higher Wednesday after a key inflation report showed a historic gain but largely matched expectations.

December reading for the consumer price index, a gauge of prices across a broad spectrum of goods, showed a gain of 7% year over year. That is the biggest jump since 1982, but was in line with expectations.

Investors are keeping an eye on Covid developments, as the World Health Organization reported a record 15 million new Covid-19 cases globally for a single week, as omicron rapidly replaces delta as the dominant variant across the globe. The World Health Organization warned that omicron cases are "off the charts."

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