The key domestic benchmarks are likely to open higher today tracking a firm trend in fellow Asian markets and another record closing at Wall Street. China’s Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng rose while Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped on hopes that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may hold off a planned sales tax hike to support the country’s economy, weakening the yen, and bolstering the appeal of exporter stocks. Back home, caution may persist ahead of IIP and CPI data to be released after market hours today, curbing gains in the Sensex. Industrial output may have expanded 0.8 per cent in September 2014 from the year ago month, up from an annual 0.4 per cent in August 2014 while consumer inflation may have eased to 5.8 per cent in October 2014 from 6.46 per cent in September 2014.
