Domestic shares ended marginally lower, paring early losses after the central bank kept its repo rate unchanged as it continues to guard against any potential flare-up in inflation and on an uncertain global economic environment.

The review comes in the backdrop of the likelihood of ‘El Nino’ disrupting monsoon rainfall and exerting upward pressure on food prices, and rising global oil and commodity prices.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex stayed in the red zone throughout the session, shuttling between 29,954.25 and 29,817.59, before finishing at 29,927.34, down 46.9 points, or 0.16 per cent.

The 50-share NSE index Nifty hit a low of 9,218.85 before recovering partially to settle at 9,261.95, still down 3.20 points or 0.03 per cent. It had touched a high of 9,267.95 and a low of 9,218.85 intra-day.

Among BSE sectoral indices, FMCG index fell the most by 0.79 per cent, followed by consumer durables 0.64 per cent, healthcare 0.63 per cent and capital goods 0.21 per cent. On the other hand, realty index was the star-performer and was up 2 per cent, followed by oil & gas 0.92 per cent, power 0.65 per cent and metal 0.4 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were Tata Steel (+1.68%), Reliance (+1.66%), Bajaj Auto (+1.46%), Power Grid (+1.26%) and GAIL (+1.18%), while the major losers were ITC (-1.65%), ICICI Bank (-1.4%), SBI (-1.35%), Coal India (-1.16%) and Dr Reddy's (-0.91%).

Stocks fell and bonds rose in Asia on Thursday, with risk appetite soured by signs the Federal Reserve might start paring its king-sized asset holdings later this year just as the chance of early US fiscal stimulus faded further.

Investors were also wary ahead of a potentially tense meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the first between the world's two most powerful leaders.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.8 per cent.

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