The rally would be laboured and likely to be aborted abruptly

The market, which was down 1% on Wednesday, recovered all losses today on positive global sentiments. The Sensex shut at 17,651, up 180 points (1%) and the Nifty ended at 5,296, up 55 points (1%). The indices started the day with a sharp gain, taking cues from Asian markets. Trading was range-bound till early afternoon. The market came off its high in the late afternoon session, ending the day with a modest gain.

Asian stocks were up on Thursday as US retail sales grew at their fastest pace in four years. Key benchmarks in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan and South Korea were up by 0.5% to 2.7%. However, China's Shanghai Composite bucked the trend and was down 0.2%. The Chinese central bank said that it will keep a loose monetary policy; however, it will use different policy tools as required.

Wall Street was up on Wednesday on a forecast from financial company State Street Corp, igniting optimism about the coming earnings season and helped the S&P 500 break above a major resistance level. The Dow rose 275 points (up 2.82%) to 10,018. The S&P 500 gained 32.2 points (3.1%) to 1,060.3. The Nasdaq advanced 65.6 points (3.1%) to 2,159.

Back home, annual food inflation eased to 12.63% for the week ended 26th June from 12.92% in the previous week, but fuel inflation shot up to 18.02% after the hike in rates of petroleum products.

Fuel inflation for the week under review rose sharply to 18.02% (from 12.90% in the previous week) after the impact of the fuel price hike. Prices of petrol and diesel were raised by up to Rs3.50 a litre, while that of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene were hiked by Rs35 per cylinder and Rs3 a litre respectively.

Industrial output is forecast to grow at 16% in May this year from a year earlier, lower than the annual growth of 17.6% in April.

India's car sales may go up by 12%-13% in 2010-11 to 1.7 million units as estimated by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). In June this year, 1,41,184 cars were sold compared with 107,948 units a year ago, lower than the record 1,48,481 units sold in May. Sales of trucks and buses rose 44% to 52,211 units in June, while motorcycle sales rose by 30% to 715,985 units.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Wednesday relaxed the exposure margin requirement for stock derivatives, based on the feedback received from market participants. 

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs49 crore in the equities market on Wednesday. Domestic institutional investors were net buyers of stocks worth Rs134 crore.

L&T Infrastructure Finance Company, a subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro Ltd (up 1.8%), has received the status of 'Infrastructure Finance Company' from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) within the overall classification of a Non-Banking Finance Company.

KEC International (up 0.6%) has won orders in the transmission and cables space to the tune of Rs610 crore. In the transmission segment, the company has won total orders of Rs487 crore for turnkey transmission lines in Georgia, South Africa, Zambia, the Philippines and UAE. In cables, the company has won orders for supply of low tension, high tension and extra high voltage power cables worth Rs123 crore from various customers.

The board of Samyak International (up 4.8%) has approved increase in its authorised share capital from Rs3.50 crore to Rs7 crore; issue of 30,00,000 equity shares of Rs10 each to strategic investors at a price of Rs40 per share (Rs10 face value plus Rs30 premium) on a preferential basis.

Reliance Power (down 0.3%) has announced the financial closure of its 4,000 MW Krishnapatnam ultra mega power project (UMPP) being developed by Coastal Andhra Power Ltd, its wholly-owned subsidiary. The company executed financing agreements for the imported coal-fired UMPP located at Krishnapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.