The Indian stock market showed moderately negative performance on Wednesday, December 13 on the back of heightened concerns that the central bank will hike the key rate sooner than planned after yesterday’s inflation data for November. Specifically, the CPI picked up 4.88% compared to the 4.20% consensus forecast and a 3.58% increase in the previous month. In sectoral terms, automotive, pharmaceutical and media names outperformed the broader market, while metals and real estate stocks logged losses. Recapping the benchmarks, the Nifty 50 slipped 0.46% to 10,192.95, and the BSE Sensex closed 0.53% lower at 33,053.04. By 10:52 GMT, the USD/INR currency pair eased 0.19% to 64,435, while EUR/INR traded up 0.13% to 75.7199. The 10-year Indian government bond yield widened to 7.231%. J K Cement, Shree Cement and JK Lakshmi Cement soared 6.3%, 3.0% and 4.3%, respectively, after the Supreme Court ruled that cement producers could use petroleum coke as feedstock, lifting a ban imposed one month ago as an environmental protection measure. Punj Lloyd spiked 6.6% as the company, in a joint venture with Varaha Infra, was awarded a contract to reconstruct a road between the towns of Yargi and Kalewa in Myanmar. The daily chart shows that the BSE Sensex is trading within a bullish flag. Given that there are no signs of overbuying, the benchmark can be expected to reverse and head towards the upper end of the pattern in the short term. $SENSEX, S&P BSE SENSEX INDEX / D