MUMBAI • India’s benchmark equity index erased all gains to rise for a second day as investors looked beyond disappointing macro numbers to gauge the outcome of Gujarat state elections.

The S&P BSE Sensex climbed 0.5% to 33,377.72 as of 1:10pm in Mumbai yesterday.

Fifteen out of the 19 sectoral sub-indexes compiled by BSE Ltd gained led by gauge of energy and consumer durable stocks.

Kotak Mahindra Bank and Oil & Natural Gas Corp Ltd were the bests performers on the Sensex.

“Market has discounted the inflation and factory output numbers and is now building up levels ahead of Gujarat exit polls that’ll start rolling out after end of voting today,” Sanjay Sinha, founder of Mumbai-based Citrus Advisors said.

Consumer prices rose 4.9% in November from a year earlier as food and fuel costs surged, the Statistics Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

That’s the fastest pace in 15 months and exceeds all estimates in a Bloomberg survey, pushing the yield on the 10-year sovereign bond to the highest since July 2016 when markets reopened yesterday. — Bloomberg