Reported By:
| Edited By: |Source: PTI |Updated: Mar 16, 2018, 04:27 AM IST
The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share Sensex ended 81 points lower on Tuesday in choppy trade today amid the Reserve Bank's rate cuts and mixed global trends.
The RBI this afternoon lowered the repo rate to 4.75 per cent and reverse repo to 3.25 per cent with immediate effect to give relief to the home, auto and corporate borrowers.
Moving in a range of 305 points, the BSE barometer later ended the day at 10,898.11, a net loss of 81.39 points or 0.74 per cent from its previous close.
The National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty also dropped by 11.80 points or 0.35 per cent to close at 3,365.30 from its last close.
Brokers said the market recovered from its intra-day low of 10,764.08 on the back of the RBI's rate cuts.
The RBI pegged the economic growth rate forecast for the current fiscal at 6.0 per cent against an estimate of 6.5-6.7 per cent for 2008-09 in the face of the ongoing global economic slowdown.
They attributed the continued volatility in the market to investors' cautious approach as also the uncertain political situation because of no clear indication as to who will form the next government.
Key Asian indices such as the Hang Seng ended 2.95 per cent lower and the Nikkei lost 2.39 per cent while Strait Times, Taiwan and Kospi finished in positive territory.
However, 12 stocks from the 30 shares from the Sensex pack closed with gains.
India's largest steel manufacturer Tata Steel fell by 7.06 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank (6.51 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (5.38 per cent), Tata Motors (5.18 per cent), Sterlite (4.21 per cent), L&T (3.41 per cent), SBI (3.13 per cent), Reliance Infra (3.12 per cent) and M&M (2.45 per cent).
Bharti Airtel gained 4.35 per cent, Hindalco 3.83 per cent, Sun Pharma 3.15 per cent, DLF 2.84 per cent, Tata Power 2.41 per cent and ITC 2.33 per cent.
The market breadth was slightly negative with 1,288 losers against 1,226 gainers on the BSE.
The trading volume improved to Rs 5,109.37 crore from Rs 4,749.97 crore on April 20. RIL clocked the highest turnover of Rs 283.44 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 255.27 crore), Educomp Solutions (Rs 205.02 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 202.84 crore) and HDIL (Rs 187.24 crore).
Realty stocks staged a smart recovery on hopes of increase in housing demand after today's rate cuts. As a result, the BSE realty index jumped by 2.27 per cent.
The bankex, however, dropped by 2.86 per cent.
