Mumbai: Key equity indices ended flat on Monday ahead of a crucial monetary policy review meeting of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday. Positive global cues helped the markets start on a high note but the indices moved in a range-bound manner throughout the session. The 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex gained 74.17 points or 0.52% before closing at 14,349.11 points. The Nifty of National Stock Exchange (NSE) added 20.25 points or 0.47% and closed at 4,332.10 points.
The Sensex opened the day at 14,267.03 points, moved in the range of 14,421.61 points on the higher side and a low of 14,219.38 points before closing the day at 14,349.11 points. Among the major indices which gained was the BSE Oil & Gas. It added 148.48 points or 1.56% and closed at 9,504.42 points.
Barring metal, power, IT and auto, all the other sectoral indices ended in positive terrain. Sudhanshu Pandey, technical analyst, LKP Shares, said, “Most of the negatives have been factored in, so even with negative surprise in the corporate results, we see only a knee-jerk reaction but not a major selloff.
As far as the RBI measures are concerned, we don’t expect an interest rate hike but a measure in terms of a repo and CRR hike is very likely. We see Nifty consolidating in the range of 4K to 4.1K. However, it still depends upon the way oil prices pan out.”
Though the markets remained positive through out the day, foreign institutional investors were net sellers at Rs 721.90 crore and domestic institutional investors were net buyers at Rs 456.67 crore. The market breadth remained encouraging as 1,767 shares advanced, 848 declined while 77 remained unchanged. In the Sensex pack, 13 shares went up and 17 shares declined.
