Rangebound Sensex Ends On A Flat Note, Nifty Settles Below 8,800

Sensex and Nifty ended today's rangebound session on a flat note on the back of selling pressure in banking and metal shares a day after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept its policy rates on hold and said it would shift its stance from "accommodative" to "neutral," signalling an end to any further rate cuts.

Analysts had expected the RBI to cut the repo rate by another 25 basis points, either on Wednesday or at its next review in April, after bringing it down by 175 bps during January 2015 to October last year.

Indian stocks hit four-month highs earlier this week in anticipation of that easing, but analysts said there were still positives from the RBI meeting, including expectations banks would have scope to lower their lending rates if the system remains flush with liquidity.  

"The market had already discounted RBI's rate cut decision before it happened," said Mugilan K, deputy manager of research at Cholamandalam Securities.

"With earlier RBI rate cuts not yet fully implemented by banks, the current decision wouldn't have mattered as much."

The Sensex ended 40 points higher at 28,330 and Nifty advanced 9 points to settle at 8,778.

For most part of the day, the Sensex and Nifty traded in a rangebound fashion wherein Sensex touched high of 28,469 and low of 28,152 and the broader Nifty moved in a band of 97 points.

On the sectoral front, metal stocks were among the top laggards followed by banking shares. On the other hand IT shares witnessed buying interest.

From the Nifty basket of shares, 26 ended higher while 25 closed lower.

TCS, Tech Mahindra, Aurobindo Pharma, HCL Technologies, ITC, Hero MotoCorp, Wipro, Infosys and Lupin were among the gainers. While, Hindalco, Cipla, Tata Steel, Bank of Baroda, IndusInd Bank and L&T were among the losers.

Among the individual shares, Indraprastha Gas Ltd rose to a record high after posting a 37 per cent increase in its December-quarter net profit.

Manappuram Finance Ltd surged 12.8 per cent to a three-and-a-half-month high after posting a 100 per cent increase in its December-quarter profit.