Nifty slips again, shrugs of RBI move; RIL, TCS drag

Equity benchmarks drifted lower again amid choppy trade - the Nifty inching back to 5400 level - on the back of sell-off in heavyweights Reliance Industries and L&T. Technology, metal, auto, cement and private banking companies' shares were dragging the markets down.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 18,044, down 88 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 33 points to 5,414.

RBI policy was a non event for the market as 25 basis points hike in key rates was on expected lines. If the market increases rates by 50 basis points, then it would have reacted quite sharply.

Reserve Bank of India has hiked repo (rate at which RBI lends money to banks) and reverse repo (rate at which RBI borrows money from banks) rates by 25 basis points each to 7.5% and 6.5%, respectively. Cash Reserve Ratio was unchanged.

However, experts as well as bankers still feel that there would be more rate hikes to contain inflation. According to Axis AMC, RBI is unlikely to pause rate hikes. It expects a couple of more rate hikes.

Reliance Industries has hit a 23-month low today, falling 1.5% to Rs 887. Among others, TCS, L&T, Infosys and Wipro were down 1-2%.

PNB and IDFC tumbled 2.5% each. HDFC Bank and Axis Bank fell close to 1%.

However, buying continued in SBI, HUL, NTPC, BHEL, HDFC, Bharti Airtel and ONGC, which has limited the downside.

Midcaps

SKS Microfinance, KGN Industries, Torrent Pharma, DB Realty and Punj Lloyd gained 2-4% whereas India Infoline, TTK Prestige, Glodyne Tech, Motherson Sumi and Anant Raj Inds fell 4%.