The stock market indices opened positive on December 9. The benchmark Sensex was up 202.10 points or 0.34 percent at 58,851.78. The Nifty was up 57.40 points or 0.33 percent at 17,527.20. About 1409 shares have advanced, 359 shares declined, and 73 shares are unchanged.
At the opening bell, M&M, BPCL, Asian Paints, Reliance Industries and UltraTech Cement were among major gainers on the Nifty. Early losers included TCS, Hindalco, HDFC Bank, Divis Labs and Tech Mahindra.
Nifty rose for the second consecutive session on December 8 as fears from Omicron variant of COVID subsided. At close, Nifty was up 1.71 percent or 293 points to 17469.7. Nifty gained the most in points terms in more than 6 months.
Nifty has risen sharply over two days. The next resistance is at 17564 while the support could come in at 17252. Sharply positive advance decline ratio hints at some more upside in the near term.
Asian stocks up
Most Asian stocks rose Thursday as traders bet the global recovery will be resilient to the new virus strain.
Traders' focus was turned to the release of inflation data on Friday and a Federal Reserve meeting next week for indications on hike timing. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5 percent to a two-week high. Japan's Nikkei was steady, having gained 3.5 percent in the previous two sessions, Reuters said.
S&P 500 futures were steady after a 0.3 percent rise in the cash index overnight carried it to within 1 percent of a new record high. "Volatility remains elevated as the drip of news around Omicron continues," said analysts at ANZ Bank, and beyond it looms an expectation of higher US interest rates in 2022.
US stocks finish higher
US stocks finished higher Wednesday, with the major indexes near record highs, aided partly by news suggesting the omicron variant of the coronavirus may not disrupt economies as much as feared. A report from Pfizer and BioNTech indicating that a third dose of their COVID-19 vaccine neutralized omicron in laboratory tests, but that a two-dose regimen is less effective, appeared to offer some solace to the bulls.
Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal are forecasting US CPI to rise 0.7 percent for November and 6.7% percent annually. The data is due Friday. Investor attention is now also turning to the meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee—the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy body—next week.
China consumer prices up
China’s consumer prices rose only last month, but factory-gate inflation eased, data released on Thursday showed. China’s official consumer price index (CPI) rose by 2.3 per cent in November from a year earlier, up from a rise of 1.5 per cent in October. Meanwhile, the producer price index (PPI), which reflects the prices factories charge wholesalers for their products, rose by 12.9 per cent in November from a year earlier, down from the 26-year high of 13.5 per cent growth in October.
2022 to mark end of pandemic, see full economic recovery: JP Morgan
US investment bank JP Morgan predicted on Wednesday that 2022 will mark the end of the coronavirus pandemic and see a full global economic recovery. The bank's outlook report for next year said new vaccines and therapeutics would result in a "strong cyclical recovery, a return of global mobility, and a release of pent-up demand from consumers.
Brazil's central bank on Wednesday raised interest rates by 150 basis points (to 9.25 percent) and signaled another such hike in February, waging one of the world's most aggressive battles with inflation even as Latin America's largest economy has tipped into recession.
