The benchmark BSE Sensex was trading down by nearly 70 points as the Reserve Bank of India has left the repo rate unchanged in its first bi-monthly monetary policy review of FY18.

The review comes in the backdrop of the likelihood of ‘El Nino’ disrupting monsoon rainfall and exerting upward pressure on food prices, and rising global oil and commodity prices.

At 2.35 p.m., the 30-share BSE index Sensex was down 68.96 points or 0.23 per cent at 29,905.28 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 18.75 points or 0.2 per cent at 9,246.40.

Among BSE sectoral indices, consumer durables index fell the most by 0.86 per cent, FMCG 0.78 per cent, healthcare 0.65 per cent and metal 0.47 per cent. On the other hand, realty index was the star-performer and was up 2.61 per cent, followed by oil & gas 0.66 per cent, PSU 0.4 per cent and power 0.26 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were Reliance (+1.92%), Bajaj Auto (+1.33%), Axis Bank (+1.17%), Power Grid (+1.00%) and Infosys (+0.56%), while the major losers were ITC (-1.61%), Adani Ports (-1.13%), Coal India (-1.12%), ICICI Bank (-0.93%) and Bharti Airtel (-0.87%).

Stocks fell and bonds rose in Asia on Thursday, with risk appetite soured by signs the Federal Reserve might start paring its king-sized asset holdings later this year just as the chance of early US fiscal stimulus faded further.

Investors were also wary ahead of a potentially tense meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the first between the world's two most powerful leaders.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.8 per cent.