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CHENNAI: Stock markets continued to tank on Wednesday as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) left the policy rate unchanged and lowered growth projection for the fiscal. The day saw benchmark indices end lower in a see-saw trade with the BSE Sensex falling over 113 points to finish at 34,082.71 and the broader NSE Nifty shedding 21.55 points to close at 10,476.70.
RBI on Wednesday kept the interest rate unchanged at six per cent and maintained its ‘neutral’ stance. While this was expected, the markets reacted nervously to the central bank’s decision to lower economic growth projection for FY18 from 6.7 per cent to 6.6 per cent.
“Market reacted quite negatively while Bank Nifty underperformed owing to deferment in credit cycle due to subdued capacity utilisation in the economy and hardening bond yield,” said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth `2,326.10 crore on Tuesday, while domestic institutional investors bought equities to the tune of `1,699.74 crore, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.
Major losers were L&T, TCS, Bharti Airtel, Wipro, Hindustan Unilever, M&M, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, NTPC and HDFC Ltd.
The banking index dipped 0.43 per cent as shares of Punjab National Bank, YES Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank and Bank of Baroda shed up to 2.18 per cent. However, ICICI Bank, SBI and Federal Bank edged higher.
Notably, the broader markets were back in better shape, with the small-cap index rising 1.95 per cent and the mid-cap index inching up by 0.43 per cent.
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