Thaindian News

Mumbai, July 25 (IANS) Fears of another rate hike by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept trading at Indian equities Monday subdued with a benchmark index ruling in a tight range around noon.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,753.35 points, was ruling at 18,716.58 points, down 5.72 points or 0.03 percent from its previous close at 18,722.3 points.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will take up a review of the monetary policy Tuesday, with most fearing that the country’s apex bank will raise interest rates once again.

If it does that, it would be the 11th rate hike since January 2010 and could result in commercial banks passing on the increase to lenders by making loans to individuals and companies that much costlier.

The 50-scrip S&P; CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was also trading lacklustre at 5,632.25 points, down 0.03 percent.

Broader markets too hardly nudged up. The BSE midcap index was ruling 0.46 percent up and the BSE smallcap index was trading 0.73 percent up.

The market breadth at the BSE was positive with 1,500 stocks advancing, 1,188 on the decline and 121 remaining unchanged.

FMCG, IT and banking stocks were trading weak, while some energy and healthcare scrips rose.

Among gainers on the Sensex were RIL, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and M&M.; The losers on the benchmark included HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Infosys and ITC.

Asian markets were mostly in the red.

The Japanese Nikkei Thursday closed 0.81 percent lower at 10,050.11 points.

The Hang Seng of the Hong Kong stock exchange was ruling 0.78 percent lower at 22,270.19 points, while the Chinese Shanghai composite index ended 2.95 percent lower at 2,688.95 points.