Mumbai: After flipping between positive and negative zones, the benchmark BSE Sensex Tuesday settled with a marginal rise of 12 points at 28,516.59, after RBI keeping key policy rate unchanged failed to cheer investors.
The 30-share Sensex opened firm and rose over 105 points by rallying to 28,641.08 in early trade. However, it pared gains and fell to the day's low of 28,274.36 after the RBI kept policy rate unchanged.
In its monetary policy, RBI left the short-term lending rate or repo rate unchanged at 7.5 percent and the cash reserve ratio static at 4 percent. The statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) has also been retained at 21.5 percent.
"The move was widely anticipated by the markets and was discounted in current market prices," said Hiren Dhakan, Associate Fund manager at Bonanza Portfolio.
However, buying in blue-chip stocks at the fag-end helped the BSE Sensex to finish with a marginal rise of 12.13 points or 0.04 percent at 28,516.59.
On similar lines, the 50-share NSE Nifty also moved in a wide range of 8,693.60 and 8,586.85 before ending at 8,660.30, showing a marginal gain of 0.40 points.
Major gainers on the Sensex included, Tata Steel at 4.89 percent, SSLT 3.14 percent, Bajaj Auto 3.03 percent, NTPC 2.73 percent, Bharti Airtel 2.03 percent, M&M 1.92 percent, Hindalco 1.67 percent and Tata Power 1.62 percent.
Among banking stocks, Axis Bank at 1.69 percent was the biggest loser followed by ICICI Bank at 1.20 percent and SBI 0.97 percent.
Sectorally, realty index topped the worst performer list by falling 1.62 percent, followed by bankex shedding 0.71 percent and healthcare losing 0.19 percent.
"The concerns with respect to normalisation of Fed policy have been dissipated for the time being due to likely postponement of the tightening of the policy rates," said Hitesh Agrawal, Head Research of Reliance Securities.
Asian markets ended higher following overnight gains in the US stocks. Key benchmark indices in China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan rose in the range of 0.37 percent to 2.52 percent. Stock market in Hong Kong remained closed today for Ching Ming Festival.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 936.81 crore yesterday, as per the provisional data.
European stocks were trading higher as investors returned from the long holiday break. Key benchmark indices in Germany, France and the UK were up by 1.00 percent to 1.35 percent.
"Tracking the global cues, the domestic markets opened with a positive note but slipped into the negative territory after the RBI policy meet, but later recovered due to selective buying. As of the first policy review in the financial year, the central bank kept its key interest rates unchanged," said Vinod Nair, Head-Fundamental Research at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.
Of the 30-share Sensex pack, 16 scrips ended higher, 13 lower while ITC ruled steady.
Axis Bank dropped the most at 1.69 percent, followed by Sun Pharma 1.42 percent, Tata Motors 1.32 percent, ICICI Bank 1.20 percent and Hero MotoCorp 1.19 percent.
Among the BSE sectoral indices, metal rose by 2.02 percent, power 0.93 percent, consumer durables 0.66 percent and FMCG 0.64 percent.
Market breadth continued to remain strong as 1,653 stocks ended in green, 1,096 finished in red while 106 ruled steady. Total equity turnover rose to Rs 3,303.88 crore from Rs 2,937.62 crore yesterday.
