Indian stock indices closed Monday's trade largely on a steady note, as investors await retail and wholesale inflation data for March due later this week.
The indices extended gains for the sixth session in a row, as the central bank made a surprise decision of keeping the repo rate unchanged to assess the effects of the policy rate tightening so far.
In recent months, it said they have seen downside surprises in the inflation data, and headline inflation has already peaked in nine out of 12 economies in the region.
Indian stock indices have extended losses for the second straight session, largely due to continued selling by foreign investors on concerns over higher stock valuations.
The global markets are expecting an aggressive hike in policy rates by Federal Reserve next week. If the Fed hike its monetary policy rates, the global markets are bound to react to the policy change and eventually the country's markets, in a way, will be influenced by the hike. In another d
Reserve Bank of India's Deputy Governor also said that next week, deliberations would be starting for the next policy review to be announced in the first week of December and will have to depend on inflation data for October and growth data for July-September coming out on November 30.
Retail inflation moderated to a three-month low of 6.77 per cent in October from 7.41 per cent the previous month. Also, wholesale inflation in October came in at single-digit after 18 long months.
At 9.53 am, Sensex traded at 60,555.92 points, down 477.63 points or 0.78 per cent, whereas Nifty traded at 18,022.70 points, down 134.30 points or 0.74 per cent.