Photo: The Hindu Business Line
Chennai, India (BBN) - Shares inched down on Tuesday, with markets taking a breather as the possibility of the central bank cutting interest rates next month was further dampened after retail inflation picked up to a seven-month high in October.
At about 12.10 pm, the Sensex was trading down 0.25 per cent or 82.11 points at 32,951.45 while the NSE Nifty was down 0.29 per cent or 29.85 points at 10,195.10, reports The Hindu Business line.
India's retail inflation grew 3.58 per cent last month, government data showed on Monday, driven by faster rises in prices of food and fuel products.
“The likelihood of inflation testing the 4 per cent target by late 2017 and staying above it for rest of 2018 reinforces our expectations that central bank will remain on hold in December and the rest of 2018,” said Radhika Rao, Economist at DBS Group Research in a note.
“Markets appear to be consolidating right now,” said R.K. Gupta, Managing Director at Taurus Asset Management.
“Don't see any major downside or upsides in the market as of now, so I think at the end of the quarter markets will move in narrow ranges,” he said.
Losses in IT stocks such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and banking stocks such as ICICI Bank Ltd offset gains in consumer stocks such as ITC Ltd.
ICICI Bank slipped 1 per cent and Tata Consultancy Services fell 1.5 per cent. ITC shares were 0.2 per cent higher.
Bharti Infratel Ltd fell 4.2 per cent after parent company Bharti Airtel Ltd's unit Nettle Infrastructure Investments Ltd said it was selling a stake in the mobile masts operator.
Repco Home Finance Ltd surged as much 14.1 per cent to hit a two-month high after posting a 22 per cent rise in September-quarter net profit.
BBN/MMI/ANS