Nifty Closes Below 19,545; Sensex Falls 308 Points

The Nifty 50 and Sensex closed lower on Thursday after widespread selling following the RBI maintained the status quo on the benchmark lending rate as well as its policy stance.

The BSE Sensex ended the day at 65,688.18, down 307.63 points, while the NSE Nifty closed at 19,543.1, down 89.45 points.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) maintained key interest rates steady for the third consecutive meeting on Thursday but foreshadowed tighter policy if food prices drive inflation higher.

Investors were also on the sidelines ahead of the release of US inflation data.

Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ITC, Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Nestle, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, HCL Technologies, Maruti, and Hindustan Unilever were the major laggards in the Sensex pack.

Among the winners were IndusInd Bank, JSW Steel, Titan, Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra, and Power Grid.

In Asian markets, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong finished up, while Seoul concluded lower.

European stocks were trading higher.

On Wednesday, the US markets ended in the red.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned buyers on Wednesday after dumping equities for several days.

According to exchange data, they purchased equities worth Rs 644.11 crore on Wednesday.

Brent crude rose 0.05 percent to USD 87.59 a barrel.

On Wednesday, the BSE index rose 149.31 points, or 0.23 percent, to 65,995.81. The Nifty climbed 61.70 points, or 0.32 percent, to 19,632.55.

Also read: RBI Introduces UPI-Based Offline Payments