The Sensex is on a recovery path mainly aided by the banking scrips. The Sensex pared most of its losses and is at 19,491 down 10 points and the Nifty has improved at 5,852, shedding eight points.
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(Updated at 12:04hrs)
The Sensex has dropped to the day's low at 19,424 after the RBI announced a hike in rates. The Nifty has shed 21 points at 5,839. In the broader markets the midcap index is down 0.2% in line with the benchmark index while the smallcap index holds at 0.1% in the positive.
On the credit policy front, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its maiden mid-quarter policy today hiked repo rate by 25 bps to 6% and reverse repo rates by 50 basis points (bps) to 5%.The RBI had earlier hiked the repo rate by 25 basis points and reverse repo rate by 50 basis points during its policy review in July.
On the BSE sectoral indices, almost all the indices has slipped into the red with an exception of FMCG, Bankex,Auto and PSU. These indices were the leading gainers rite from the start of the trading session.The IT index is the biggest loser at 1.7% in the red.
Snapping an eight-day gaining streak, shares of IT major Infosys Technologies today plunged by nearly 2% in early trade on the BSE, dragging the IT sector index down by 91 points. Shares of the IT bellwether fell by 2% to a low of Rs 2,989 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, emerging as the top loser in the 30-share Sensex pack in the early hours of trade. Infosys, the second most valuable scrip on the Sensex after RIL, had gained 10.88% in the last eight sessions.
Other IT giants like TCS and Wipro were also under selling pressure, and were down by 1.71% and 0.61%, respectively, in early trade. Apart from these stocks, HCL Tech was down by 0.59%, Patni Computers by 1.18% and Tech Mahindra by 0.80%.
The top gainers on the Sensex are State Bank of India and Maruti Suzuki down 1% followed by Hindustan Unilever, Tata Motors, ACC, Hero Honda gaining 0.1% - 0.4%.
Other than the IT stocks, the losers on the Sensex are DLF, Sterlite, JP Associates down nearly 2%, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Reliance Infrastructure losing 1% each.