Nifty ends below 8,800 for the second straight session

Benchmark indices closed lower for the third straight day weighed down by weakness in the interest rate-sensitive stocks including real-estate companies, auto and banks after the Reserve Bank of India kept the policy rates unchanged.

Provisionally, the 30-share Sensex lost 151 points to close at 28,971 and the 50-share Nifty shed 50 points to end at 8,747.

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(updated at 3.30pm)

Benchmark indices continued to remain weak, amid choppy trades, with financials leading the decline after the Reserve Bank of India at its policy review today kept key rates unchanged.

At 2:35PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 86 points at 29,036 and the 50-share Nifty was down 27 points at 8,770.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept the key rates unchanged. The repo rate was unchanged at 7.75% and the reverse repo rate at 6.75%. However, RBI has cut SLR by 50 basis points to 21.5%, effective February 7. he repo rate 25bp to 7.50% from 7.25%

Foreign institutional investors remain net sellers in equities after they sold equities worth Rs 630 crore on Monday, as per the provisional stock exchange data.

The BSE Oil and Gas indes was the top gainer up 1.8% followed by Consumer Durables and FMCG indices among others. Bankex was the top loser down 2.1% followed by Healthcare, Power and Realty indices.

Among bank shares, Axis Bank witnessed profit taking and was down 4% after rising over 5% yesterday. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI were down 1-2% each while mortgage lender HDFC was down 2.2%.

Other Sensex losers include, Infosys, Tata Power and L&T among others.

Auto shares were mixed with Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki and M&M down 1-2.7% each. However, Tata Motors was up 2.8% after the company said its sales of passenger vehicles in the domestic market in January stood at 13,047 units, up 18.89% from 10,974 units in January 2014.

Shares of Sesa Sterlite have gained over 5% after iron ore prices bounced back. Chinese iron ore futures rebounded on Tuesday and were on course for their second-biggest daily gain this year, with traders saying some steel mills had made a surprising return to the market, sensing that ore prices might be near the bottom.

RIL has gained 1.7% after the company announced its plan to apply for a payment bank license in partnership with SBI.

Oil shares were trading higher after the sharp rebound in global crude oil prices. ONGC has gained around 2%.

ITC has gained over 1% while its peer HUL gained around 0.5%.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were trading flat with negative bias.

Market breadth was weak with 1,435 losers and 1,315 gainers on the BSE.