Sensex, Nifty steady ahead of RBI policy; ONGC up four pct

The market on Tuesday remained steady ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy review. The Sensex traded up 73.16 points or 0.3 percent at 28316.45, while the Nifty traded up 21.75 points or 0.2 percent at 8759.85.

Shares such as GAIL, ONGC, Cipla, Tata Steel and Reliance were among the top gainers, while Coal India, Axis Bank and Dr Reddy's Labs were amongst the losers.

On the other hand, the gold prices were higher by Rs. 102 to Rs. 30,681 per 10 gram in futures trade today as speculators widened their positions even as the precious metal weakened overseas as the dollar strengthened.

According to the market analysts, the expanding of positions by speculators helped gold futures to trade here but metal's weakness overseas on dollar's gain against basket of currencies overseas, capped the gains.

Equity benchmarks as well as broader markets erased more than half of early gains amid consolidation as Oil, FMCG and pharma stocks continued to support the market amid banks and infra stocks being under pressure ahead of the RBI monetary policy.