Mumbai, Sep 16 (TIWN) Easing retail inflation along with stable Asian cues lifted India's key stock indices on Tuesday.

Initially, both the key indices — S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 — had a gap-up opening. In the process, Nifty marked a new record high of 17,438 points.  On Monday, official data released after market hours had showed that India’s August retail inflation eased to 5.30 per cent from 5.59 per cent in July.     The macro-economic data assumes significance as it brings the retail inflation mark in the range of the Reserve Bank of India’s set target of 2-6 per cent for CPI inflation.  Accordingly, the declining retail inflation rate reduces the chance of the RBI to tightening its monetary policy.  Besides, another set of data showed that higher prices of primary articles as well as manufactured goods pushed India’s August 2021 wholesale inflation to 11.39 per cent from 11.16 per cent in July.  Globally, Asian stocks were largely up except China and Hong Kong, while European stocks slipped on Tuesday as caution ahead of the US inflation data and weakness in luxury and mining shares offset optimism around the region’s economic recovery.  On a stock specific basis, metal stocks were the main losers while consumer durables, automobiles and utilities were the main gainers.