Markets cautious ahead of RBI's monetary policy

BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty opened flat on Wednesday ahead of Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) sixth bi-monthly monetary policy. 

At 9.28 am, Sensex was trading at 28,346.83, above 11.67 points or 0.04% and that of Nifty was at 8,775, higher by 6.70 points or 0.08%.

Top gainers on BSE Sensex were: Tata Steel at Rs 480.40 per piece (1.51%), Cipla at Rs 605 per piece (1.29%), Tata Motors at Rs 511.95 per piece (1.02%), Coal India at Rs 318.25 per piece (0.84%), Gail India at Rs 480.25 per piece (0.82%) and ONGC at Rs 194.85 per piece at Rs 194.60 (0.80%).

Top losers included: ITC at RS 274.05 per piece (1.10%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories at Rs 3042 per piece (0.72%), Axis Bank at Rs 489.25 per piece (0.68%), Infosys at Rs 940 per piece (0.50%) and ICICI Bank at Rs 286.55 per piece (0.42%).

Major companies like Hero MotoCorp, Cipla, Reliance Power, NTPC, Union Bank of India and Tata Chemicals will be announcing their third quarter financial results on Wednesday.

A Reuters poll last week showed 28 of 46 participants expect the RBI to cut the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.0%, its lowest since November 2010. Another two expected a 50 bps cut. 

CARE Ratings expects status quo in the policy stance but retains its forecast of a possible 25 bps rate cut in April’17 Annual Monetary policy and another 25 bps during the course of FY18 provided inflation remain benign.