Live: Sensex Down 150 Points as RBI Keeps Rates Unchanged

10:40 a.m. Market update: Sensex down 166 points to 28,020, Nifty below 8,500.

10: 30 a.m. Rate sensitives mixed ahead of RBI policy review. Bank Nifty is off 0.20 per cent while BSE Auto and Realty indices trade higher.

10:22 a.m. Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan is expected to keep interest rates unchanged at the monetary policy review scheduled for 11 a.m. today, according to a majority of economists polled by Reuters. (Read)

9:45 a.m. Expect markets to consolidate in near term: Hemant Kanawala, head of equity at Kotak Life Insurance 

9:27 a.m.  BSE Sensex turns edgy ahead of RBI policy review. After rising nearly 80 points in  early trade, it is down around 80 points.

9:20 a.m.  Stock update: Hero MotoCorp surges 3% on strong margin expansion in Q1; BPCL, IOC and HPCL up 0.60% to 1% as global oil prices fall sharply.

(Read:Hero MotoCorp Gains 3%)

9:16 a.m. Markets open higher ahead of RBI policy review:  Sensex up 75 points to 28,261, Nifty rises above 8,550

9:14 a.m.  Buy Hero MotoCorp on declines, suggests G Chokkalingam, founder of Equinomics Research & Advisory. Q1 margin expansion positive for Hero MotoCorp but topline still struggling amid strong competition, he says.  Focus on exports may help Hero MotoCorp’s topline going forward, he adds.

9:01 a.m. Rupee opens lower at 64.09 per dollar against Monday’s close of 64.04.

8:51 a.m. Oil marketing companies HPCL, BPCL and IOC are also likely to be in focus with global oil prices tumbling by 5 per cent to move below $50.

8:40 a.m.  Hero MotoCorp will be in focus today. The company posted a 33 per cent rise in its fiscal first quarter net profit, beating analyst expectations. The two-wheeler maker said profit in the June quarter rose to Rs 750 crore, up from Rs 563 crore a year earlier. Analysts on average expected the company to post a profit of Rs 683 crore for the quarter.

EBITDA or operating margin improved to 15.1 per cent, up 270 bps quarter on quarter, led by lower material cost and other expenses. Net sales of the company, however, fell marginally to Rs 6,856 crore from Rs 7036 crore in the same period last year.

8:20 a.m.  BSE Sensex may see a flat start as indicated by SGX CNX Nifty which is off 0.08 per cent.

8:15 a.m. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to hold rates steady in its policy review today, particularly with retail inflation at an eight-month high, a Reuters poll of economists found. Higher food prices pushed retail or consumer inflation to an eight-month high of 5.4 per cent in June.

But an improvement in the monsoon and a fall in fuel prices have led to some optimism in some quarters that RBI chief Raghuram Rajan may spring a surprise. Research firm Moody’s Analytics on Monday said the Reserve Bank is likely to cut the benchmark rate by 0.25 per cent as inflation is likely to remain subdued on the back of average rainfall and lower commodity prices.

“The Reserve Bank of India could deliver fireworks in its monetary policy meeting on Tuesday by cutting the repo rate by 25 basis points to 7 per cent,” Moody’s said in a report.

8:12 a.m. Asian shares edged lower on Tuesday after downbeat economic data pressured Wall Street ahead of key U.S. jobs data later this week that could provide a key clue to the timing of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate increase.

8:10 a.m. Crude oil prices stabilized after plunging overnight, with US crude adding about 0.6 per cent to $45.42 a barrel. Brent gained 0.4 per cent to $49.73 after skidding 5 per cent to six-month lows.

8:08 a.m. Overnight, US equities markets logged solid losses after manufacturing data from China and U.S. figures released on Monday both disappointed. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.52 per cent to end at 17,598.2. The S&P 500 lost 0.28 per cent to 2,098.04 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.25 per cent to 5,115.38.



MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> was down 0.2 percent in early trading, while Japan’s Nikkei stock index <.N225> slipped 0.5 percent, after breaking a three-day winning streak in the previous session.