RBI's unchanged policy rates trigger fall in Sensex

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex), on Tuesday reacted negatively to the central bank maintaining unchanged the policy rates in its first monetary policy review for the 2015-16 fiscal.

The Sensex shed over 200 points or 0.71 percent in late-afternoon trade session.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also fell during the late-afternoon trade session and was trading 66.65 points or 0.77 percent down at 8,593.25 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,582.33 points, was trading at 28,301.75 points (at 2.00 p.m.) -- down 202.71 points or 0.71 percent from the previous day's close at 28,504.46 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 28,641.08 points and a low of 28,274.36 points in the intra-day trade so far.

Heavy selling pressure was observed in banks, healthcare, automobile, information technology (IT) and oil and gas sectors.

The S&P BSE bank index shed 250.90 points, healthcare index declined by 160.21 points, automobile index was lower by 50.24 points and oil and gas index fell by 35.33 points.

However, metal index gained 86.66 points, consumer durables index increased by 73.73 points and power index was up 8.42 points.

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, who conducted the first bi-monthly review of the monetary policy for the current fiscal year, decided to retain the repurchase rate, the reverse repurchase rate, the cash reserve ratio and the statutory ratio at existing levels.

Accordingly, the repurchase rate and reserve repurchase rate have been maintained at 7.5 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, while the cash reserve ratio and the statutory liquidity ratio have been left untouched at 4 percent and 21.5 percent, respectively.