Mumbai, India (BBN) – The Sensex and Nifty ended marginally lower as the Reserve Bank of India sprung a surprise and did not deliver the expected 25 basis points cut in repo rate, its key policy rate, at the conclusion of its sixth bimonthly meet.
The repo rate will remain at 6.25 per cent, reports The Hindu Business Line.
Domestic markets plunged as soon as news broke that the expected cut in repo rate did not come about.
The BSE’s sensitive index which was down about 47 points a few minutes before the release of the policy plunged another 120 points within a minute of the policy’s release.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended lower by 45.24 points or 0.16 per cent at 28,289.92 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty closed up 0.75 points or 0.01 per cent at 8,769.05.
Among BSE sectoral indices, FMCG index was down 0.44 per cent, followed by healthcare 0.4 per cent, banking 0.14 per cent and IT 0.11 per cent.
On the other hand, consumer durables index was the star-performer and was up 2.49 per cent, oil & gas 0.86 per cent, metal 0.81 per cent and PSU 0.8 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were GAIL (+1.93 per cent), Coal India (+1.9 per cent), TCS (+1.57 per cent), M&M (+1.55 per cent) and Tata Motors (+1.22 per cent), while the major losers were Dr Reddy’s (-1.4 per cent), ITC (-1.12 per cent), Tata Steel (-1.00 per cent), Sun Pharma (-0.98 per cent) and Infosys (-0.93 per cent).
Asian share markets retreated on Wednesday and the euro was pressured as doubts over the policies of US President Donald Trump and an election looming in France sapped investor confidence.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ticked down 0.3 per cent, slipping further from Monday’s four-month high, led by 0.9 per cent fall in South Korean shares.
BBN/SK/AD