Nifty likely to open strong; all eyes on WPI

The Indian shares are likely to open strong Wednesday with the SGX Nifty trading 11 points up at 8339 in the morning around 7:40 am. The market was closed for trading on Tuesday but on Monday had gained strength. The equity benchmarks had closed at more than one month highs ahead of January-March quarter earnings.

Today all eyes will be on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for the month of March which according to a CNBC-TV18 poll is expected to come in at minus 2.07 percent due to a favourable base impact. However, one should also watch out for manufacturing inflation which is  expected to be negative and hence the core inflation is also expected to be negative.The World Bank on Tuesday predicted a GDP growth rate of 8 percent for India by 2017 and said that a strong expansion in the country, coupled with favourable oil prices, would accelerate the economic growth in South Asia.Globally, stocks in the US closed mixed as investors digested the first of the major earnings reports and moderate economic data. Sronger oil & JP Morgan Chase earnings boosted the Dow Jones and the S&P 500.On the economic data front in the US, retail sales showed an increase of 0.9 percent, slightly below expectations. The producer price index showed an increase of 0.2 percent in march, in line with expectations.Shares in Europe finished mostly lower, overtaken by worries about Greece’s persistent debt troubles. All eyes will be on investor over a European central bank meeting this week, the official start of the first-quarter earnings season. Draghi  will release their latest monetary policy decision on Wednesday.From the currency space, the dollar slipped as investors took advantage of weaker-than-expected US retail sales to lighten hefty positions on the greenback that had built up due to expectations of an impending rate increase. Crude from commodities space continued to gain  on signs of falling US oil production, weakness in the dollar and tensions in the west Asia, particularly Yemen.Meanwhile, precious metal gold cut some of its losses following a weak dollar but the metal still trades below USD 1200 dollars an ounce.Back home some of the stocks that could be in focus are DCB Bank, Bajaj Auto,Mangalore Chemicals.