Nifty Settles At 8,201 On Caution Ahead Of RBI Policy Review

Indian shares ended lower on Monday as investors paused a day before the central bank's decision on policy rates and with a number of global risk events scheduled for later this month, including a US Federal Reserve meeting and the "Brexit" referendum.

The Reserve Bank of India is widely expected to keep its benchmark repo interest rate unchanged at a five-year low of 6.50 percent, a Reuters poll showed last week. Most analysts, however, expected a 25 bps cut later this year, depending on the progress of monsoon rains.

June is expected to be a volatile month, with the Fed due to conclude its two-day meeting on June 16, although expectations of a rate hike next week have receded after a much weaker-than-expected US jobs report.

That could pause gains in markets after indexes on Friday hit their strongest levels since late October on hopes about a recovery in the Indian economy.

"As the Nifty has risen significantly in the last few sessions, investors now keenly wait for signals from market-moving events such as the RBI policy meet, the U.S. Fed decision, India's monsoon data and most importantly, the Brexit referendum later this month," said Rajesh Agarwal, head of research at AUM Capital Market.

The Nifty declined 0.24 per cent or 20 points to settle at 8,201 and Sensex fell 66 points to close at 26,777.

Bharti Airtel was top loser in the Nifty, down 2.7 per cent to close at Rs 348.60. Other telecom stocks Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications were also under pressure today, both down nearly 1 per cent.

The weakness in telecom stocks comes at a time when Reliance Jio has started taking registrations from interested people for network trials, signalling that a launch may be around the corner.

Lupin, Bharti Infratel, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma, Maruti Suzuki and Axis Bank were also among the losers.

Shares of state-owned lenders rose after quarterly performance review meeting with the finance minister on Monday.

Shares of Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda ended 1-2.5 per cent each.

Nagarjuna Oil Refinery Ltd rose as much as 20 per cent after oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the country would help revive the Nagarjuna refinery.