Market trades steady ahead of RBI policy

Key benchmark indices held firm in mid-afternoon trade ahead of the outcome of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy meeting. At 14:21 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 183.48 points or 0.58% at 31,680.86. The Nifty 50 index was up 56.90 points or 0.58% at 9,916.40. Today's gains were led by index heavyweights Reliance Industries and ITC.

Domestic stocks reversed initial gains and traded with small losses in early trade. After an initial hiccup in early trade, stocks nudged higher and hit fresh intraday high in morning trade. Stocks gradually marched ahead later during the session.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.36%, underperforming the Sensex. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.68%, outperforming the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1,415 shares rose and 1,113 shares fell. A total of 138 shares were unchanged.

Index heavyweight and cigarette major ITC gained 2.24% to Rs 267.20. The stock hit a high of Rs 268.60 and low of Rs 263.25 so far during the day.

Most metal and mining stocks fell. JSW Steel (down 1.14%), Tata Steel (down 0.37%), National Aluminium Company (down 1.5%), Hindustan Zinc (down 0.33%), Hindalco Industries (down 0.37%), NMDC (down 0.25%) and Hindustan Copper (down 0.17%) edged lower. Vedanta (up 0.05%), Steel Authority of India (Sail) (up 0.37%) and Jindal Steel & Power (up 0.1%) rose.

Most IT stocks rose. Hexaware Technologies (up 1.02%), Wipro (up 0.57%), HCL Technologies (up 0.45%), Tech Mahindra (up 0.39%), MindTree (up 0.68%) and MphasiS (up 0.34%) rose. TCS (down 0.3%), Infosys (down 0.3%) and Oracle Financial Services Software (down 0.07%) fell.

TajGVK Hotels & Resorts lost 3.24% to Rs 182.15, with the stock sliding on profit booking after recent rally. Shares of TajGVK Hotels & Resorts had rallied 13.06% in the preceding four trading sessions to settle at Rs 188.25 yesterday, 3 October 2017, from its close of Rs 166.50 on 26 September 2017.

On the macro front, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) bimonthly monetary policy decision is slated at 14:30 IST today, 4 October 2017. RBI is expected to hold rates steady. The central bank had cut policy repo rate by 25 basis points to 6% after its last monetary policy meeting in August, reducing the key policy rates for the first time in this fiscal year.

India's annual infrastructure output grew 4.9% in August compared with a revised 2.6% year-on-year growth in July, government data released after market hours yesterday, 3 October 2017 showed. Eight infrastructure sectors include coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, electricity, steel, cement, and fertiliser, comprising 40.27% weight in index of industrial production.

Overseas, most European stocks gained. Japanese and Hong Kong share markets led Asian stocks higher in holiday-thinned trading as investors took their lead from Wall Street's latest advance into record territory. Stock markets were closed in mainland China, South Korea and Taiwan for holidays.

In US, the three major stock indices on Wall Street closed at record highs yesterday, 3 October 2017, driven by expectations of strong global growth.

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