Sensex snaps 6-day winning streak ahead of RBI policy outcome, dips 52 pts

CLOSING BELL: PSU banks were the worst hit today with the Nifty PSB index down 1.75 per cent

CLOSING BELL

Stock market highlights: Equity markets ended lower as investors booked profit after six consecutive sessions of rally, and ahead of the RBI monetary policy outcome on Friday. The S&P BSE Sensex gyrated 1,136 points during the day, before settling at 58,299, down 52 points or 0.09 per cent.

The NSE Nifty50, on the other hand, closed at 17,382, down 6 points or 0.04 per cent, after hitting a high of 17,491 and a low of 17,161 during the day.

Defensive sectors were the outperformers today with the Nifty Pharma (up 2.37 per cent), Nifty IT (1.2 per cent), and Nifty FMCG (0.5 per cent) indices clocking the most gains. PSU banks were the worst hit today with the Nifty PSB index down 1.75 per cent.

Among individual stocks, Cipla, Nestle India, Sun Pharma, Infosys, Apollo Hospitals, Hindalco, Divis Labs, Dr Reddy's Labs, and JSW Steel climbed between 1 per cent and 3.2 per cent. On the downside, NTPC, Tata Consumer Products, Coal India, RIL, SBI, Shree Cement, Power Grid, Kotak Bank, and Axis Ball fell in the range of 1 per cent to 3 per cent.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices added 0.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively.