After opening the day in green, share markets in India witnessed negative trading activity throughout the day and ended the day on a weak note. Losses were seen across most sectors with stocks in the capital goods sector and stocks in the IT sector, leading the losses.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 113 points (down 0.3%) and the NSE Nifty closed down by 22 points (down 0.2%). The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day up by 0.4%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended the day up by 1.9%.

Asian stock markets finished in red. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was down by 0.9% and the Shanghai Composite was down by 1.8%. The Nikkei 225 was flat. Meanwhile, European markets were trading on a positive note. The FTSE 100 was up by 0.6%, The DAX, was up by 0.5% while the CAC 40 was up by 0.4%.

The rupee was trading at Rs 64.29 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 66.74 at the time of writing.

In news about the economy. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept interest rates unchanged in its monetary policy review today.

The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the RBI kept the repo rate unchanged at 6% in its sixth bi-monthly policy review of the fiscal year.

As per the RBI statement, five of the six MPC members voted in favor of a status quo.

With this, the policy rate stands at a seven-year low. The MPC committee had last cut the repo rate by 25 basis points in August last year.

As for inflation, the RBI raised its March-end Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation forecast to 5.1% and projected an inflation range of 5.1-5.6% in the first half of the next fiscal year.

India’s Policy Rates Compared to Asian Economies

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy statement is one of the most tracked events in the financial world. With both core and retail inflation easing to new lows, a rate cut in key interest rates was widely expected. The RBI did not disappoint and announced a quarter of a percentage point cut.