Indian stocks gain for 4th straight session, Sensex still above 60,000 pts

Indian stocks continued with their rally for the fourth straight session on September 13. At 9.23 am, Sensex traded at 60,454.35 points, up 339.22 points or 0.56 per cent, whereas Nifty traded at 18,040.85 points, up 104.50 points or 0.58 per cent. Among the Nifty 50 companies, 47 advanced and the rest three declined this morning, National Stock Exchange data showed. Prior to last Thursday, the benchmark indices - Sensex and Nifty - fell for two sessions on the likelihood of aggressive rate hikes in the US to fight inflation as indicated by the US Federal Reserve. The indices lent support today despite a rise in retail inflation as the finance ministry attributed it to base effect and stressed that initiatives taken by the government to curb price rise will be felt more significantly in the coming months, said Mohit Nigam, Head - PMS, Hem Securities. India's retail inflation rose to 7 per cent in August from 6.71 per cent the previous month due to a sharp rise in food prices, as per the government data released on Monday. Retail inflation has exceeded the Reserve Bank of India's 6 per cent tolerance band for the eighth consecutive month