The Sensex and Nifty ended marginally lower as the Reserve Bank of India sprung a surprise and did not deliver the expected 25 basis points cut in repo rate, its key policy rate, at the conclusion of its sixth bimonthly meet.
The repo rate will remain at 6.25 per cent.
Domestic markets plunged as soon as news broke that the expected cut in repo rate did not come about. The BSE's sensitive index which was down about 47 points a few minutes before the release of the policy plunged another 120 points within a minute of the policy's release.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended lower by 45.24 points or 0.16 per cent at 28,289.92 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty closed up 0.75 points or 0.01 per cent at 8,769.05.
Among BSE sectoral indices, FMCG index was down 0.39 per cent, followed by banking 0.37 per cent, healthcare 0.26 per cent and IT 0.18 per cent. On the other hand, consumer durables index gained the most by 2.83 per cent, followed by realty 0.9 per cent, metal 0.87 per cent and oil & gas 0.7 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Coal India (+1.95%), GAIL (+1.71%), M&M (+1.57%), Lupin (+1.31%) and Tata Motors (+1.22%), while the major losers were Dr Reddy's (-1.4%), Sun Pharma (-1.08%), Hero MotoCorp (-1.07%), Axis Bank (-1.04%) and Infosys (-0.88%).
Asian share markets retreated on Wednesday and the euro was pressured as doubts over the policies of US President Donald Trump and an election looming in France sapped investor confidence.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ticked down 0.3 per cent, slipping further from Monday’s four-month high, led by 0.9 per cent fall in South Korean shares.