Nifty ends at 8-week low as RBI maintains status quo

Benchmark Nifty dropped 74 points today following a sell-off in PSU bank, metal, pharma, infra, bank and financial services sectors after the RBI expectedly kept repo rate unchanged but raised inflation forecast for the second half of this fiscal.
Negative leads from global markets also dampened investor sentiment. However, buying in IT and energy counters cushioned the fall.
Overseas, Asian shares ended lower as investors monitored corporate earnings and fresh economic data. European shares were trading weak as well.
The NSE Nifty opened lower at 10,088.80 and moved in a range of 10,104.20 and 10,033.35, before ending at 10,044.10, down by 74.15 points, or 0.73 per cent. This is its lowest closing level since October 11, 2017.

It saw an intra-day movement of 70.85 points.
The Nifty mid-cap and small-cap indices fell 1.03 per cent and 0.49 per cent, respectively.

Sector-wise, PSU Bank fell 2.10 per cent, Metal 1.95 per cent, Finance Service 1.29 per cent, Infra 1.19 per cent, Bank 1.09 per cent, Private Bank 0.90 per cent, Auto 0.72 per cent, Media 0.41 per cent, Realty 0.33 per cent and FMCG 0.29 per cent.
However, IT and Energy moved up by 0.45 per cent and 0.16 per cent, respectively.
Major index gainers were Tech Mahindra, Reliance, Maruti, HCL Tech, HUL, Ambuja Cement, Infosys and Zee.

Losers included Bosch, Hindalco, Eicher Motors, Aurobindo Pharma, Vedanta, Sun Pharma, SBI and HDFC.
The market breadth, indicating its overall health, was in favour of losers. On the NSE, 560 shares advanced, 1,190 declined, while 72 remained unchanged.
Total securities that hit their price bands were 176.
Turnover in the cash segment eased to Rs 25,481.20 crore from Rs 25,495.51 crore as on Tuesday.
A total of 12,045.40 lakh shares changed hands in 1,00,29,026 trades. The market capitalisation of listed firms on the NSE stood at Rs 1,41,24,053.19 crore.