Equity indices surge ahead of RBI's monetary policy decision, Indiabulls Housing Finance gains by 7.4 pc

Equity benchmark indices were in the positive zone on Tuesday, a day before the central bank's monetary policy decision on key interest rates.

Investors said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to cut interest rates further as policymakers look to stimulate growth and spending.

At the closing bell, the BSE S & P Sensex was up 277 points at 36,977 while the Nifty 50 edged up by 86 points to 10,948. At the National Stock Exchange, all sectoral indices except for IT and media were in the green.

Among stocks, Indiabulls Housing Finance gained by 7.4 per cent to close at Rs 512 per share. Yes Bank was up by 5.5 per cent, Tech Mahindra by 3.7 per cent, Bajaj Finance by 3.6 per cent and Bharti Airtel by 3.1 per cent.

However, Zee Entertainment was down by 5.8 per cent while Cipla slipped by over 3 per cent. Heavyweight Reliance Industries also closed 1.84 per cent lower. Power Grid, Tata Consultancy Services, Britannia, Tata Motors and Wipro witnessed some losses.

Meanwhile, Asian shares took a beating with Hong Kong and Japan markets leading the fall. While Hong Kong market fell 0.67 per cent partly on civil unrest, Japan's Nikkei declined 0.65 per cent on concerns that a weak yuan and ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China will hurt exports.

South Korea's Kospi declined 1.51 per cent and China's Shanghai Composite index fell 1.55 per cent. The Chinese yuan broke below the psychological 7 per dollar threshold after US President Donald Trump decided late last week to impose 10 per cent tariffs on the remaining 300 billion dollars of Chinese imports.