After opening the day in green, share markets in India have continued the momentum and are presently trading near all-time high levels. Sectoral indices are trading on a mixed note, with stocks in the banking sector and stocks in the metal sector leading the gains.

The BSE Sensex is up by 250 points (up 0.7%) and the NSE Nifty is trading up by 60 points (up 0.6%). Meanwhile, the BSE Mid Cap index is trading down by 0.1%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.3%. The rupee is trading at 63.46 to the US$.

In news about the economy. 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.

WPI Inflation Decreases in December

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.

Data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) last week showed inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) accelerated to a 17-month high at 5.2% in December from 4.8% a month ago.

This is the final set of data that finance minister will have before him as he sits down to finalize the Union budget for 2018-19, to be presented on 1 February.

The latest, RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) forecasted that retail inflation will hover around 4.2-4.6% between October-March this year, higher than the previous projection of 4-4.5%.