Food, oil prices push inflation to 11.42 per cent

New Delhi, June 27 : The unabated hike in food and oil prices has accelerated this week's inflation from 11.05 per cent to 11.42 per cent, which is again a 13-year high.

The rise has been mainly on account of higher prices of food items like tea, milk and cereals.

While food articles and textiles were up 0.7 per cent, primary articles rose by 0.2 per cent, and fuel, power and energy were up by 0.1 per cent.

A steep rise of 3.6 per cent was recorded in minerals, while tea was up by 3 per cent. Non-food articles, however, were down by 0.5 per cent.

After hitting a 10-month low level, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex recovered at noon on Friday on return of investors as the inflation remained below market expectations.

The 30-share index, which tumbled by 637.45 points to 13,784 at the outset, recovered to 13,882.82 at 1200 hrs on emergence of buying by investors.

Buying activity picked up as the inflation data released was below market expectations of over 12 percent, brokers said.

ANI