The BSE Sensex and Nifty50 did not sustain the gains it made in the morning session, and ended lower on Wednesday after the Reserve Bank of India kept interest rates unchanged during its monetary policy review. The benchmark share indices have now ended seven straight trading sessions with losses.
During the early trading hours on Wednesday, the two indices had recovered some of their losses from Tuesday, buoyed by calmer Asian markets, which rose after cues from shares in the United States.
The Sensex ended down 113.23 points, or 0.3%, at 34,082.71 while the National Stock Exchange Nifty50 ended 21.55 points, or 0.2%, lower at 10,476.70.
On Tuesday morning, the Sensex had plunged over 1,200 points after the Dow Jones, the United States’ top share index, lost 1,175 points on Monday – almost 400 points more than the previous biggest decline in a single day during the financial crisis of 2008.
The top gainers on the Sensex on Wednesday were Coal India, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Asian Paints, Tata Motors and Dr Reddy’s. The stocks that declined the most on the index were Bharti Airtel, Wipro, Larsen & Toubro, Yes Bank and HDFC Bank.
On the Nifty50, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Aurobindo Pharma, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, ONGC and Coal India rose the most. The top losers were Ambuja Cements, Vedanta, Bharti Airtel, Indiabulls Housing and Yes Bank.
The rupee was at 64.26 a dollar, nearly flat since Tuesday’s close.
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