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Benchmark shares came off their highs in late trades amid profit booking at higher levels in FMCG and private bank shares.
At 2:20PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 13 points at 26,610 and the 50-share Nifty was up 4 points at 7,963.
RBI Monetary Policy:
RBI after its fourth bi-monthly monetary policy review kept the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 8.% and the cash reserve ratio (CRR) of scheduled banks unchanged at 4% of net demand and time liabilities (NDTL). It has reduced the liquidity provided under the export credit refinance (ECR) facility from 32% of eligible export credit outstanding to 15% with effect from 10 October 2014
Currency:
The rupee rebounded from its day's lows of 61.71 to the US dollar after the RBI policy review before gaining to trade at 61.59. The rupee had closed at Rs 61.53 in the previous session. Meanwhile, the dollar is on track to post its biggest monthly gain in over a year.
Global Markets:
Shares in Japan ended nearly 0.9% lower after weak economic data and a profit warning from Sumitomo Corp dampened sentiment. The Nikkei share average fell 0.8 percent to 16,173.52.
Hang Seng has continued to decline and lost 1.3% to its lowest in three months because of the civil unrest in Hong Kong.
China's factory sector posted lower than expected HSBC/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index(PMI) quoting at 50.2 in September, unchanged from the August reading which was a three-month low. A preliminary reading of 50.5 was expected for the month of September. Shanghai Composite was up 0.3%
Sectors and Stocks:
The BSE Realty, IT, Bankex and FMCG indices were the top losers down 0.4-2% each.
In the IT pack, Infosys and TCS were down 0.2-1.6% each amid profit taking after recent gains.
Private banking majors ICICI Bank and Axis Bank were down 1.1-2% each.
FMCG majors ITC and HUL wer down over 0.5% each as rising consumer inflation is likely to restrict spends and hit volume growth.
HDFC Group shares HDFC Bank and HDFC were the top gainers up 0.7-2% each.
Pharma shares continued to gain with Sun Pharma up 2%, Dr Reddy's Labs up 0.7% and Cipla up 1%.
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.2% and Small-cap index was up 0.3%.
Market breadth was marginally positive with 1,394 gainers and 1,335 losers on the BSE.
