Sensex rises 150 points, Nifty above 11,050 ahead of RBI policy outcome

NEW DELHI: Headline indices Sensex and Nifty opened cautiously on Thursday ahead of RBI's monetary policy outcome, but rose further soon, backed by gains in pharma, bank, IT and FMCG heavyweights.

The Reserve Bank of India will announce its monetary policy decision before noon today. A section of analysts expect RBI to keep key lending rate for commercial banks unchanged at 6.5 per cent for the third time in succession but change its stance from 'calibrated tightening' to 'neutral'.

A fall in global crude oil prices also influenced the sentiment while global cues were broadly mixed.

Asian share markets were in a muted mood on Thursday and looked set for a sleepy session with China still on holiday and no major economic data on the diary, Reuters reported.

The BSE Sensex index rose 150 points, whereas the Nifty50 hovered near 11,100 in early trade.

Around 9:30 am, the Sensex was trading 143 points, or 0.39 per cent, up at 37,118, while the Nifty index was 33 points, or 0.29 per cent, up at 11,095.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were 0.27 per cent and 0.18 per cent up, respectively.

Sun Pharma shares jumped 3 per cent and were leading the pack of Sensex gainers at that time. HCL Tech, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, ONGC and Reliance Industries were trading with decent gains.

Tata Steel, on the other hand, declined over 1 per cent to lead the pack of Sensex losers. Vedanta, Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank and HDFC, too, were in the red.

Pharma, IT and auto were the top gainers among the sectoral indices on BSE, rising up to 1 per cent.

The metal pack, however, fell 1 per cent on losses in shares of JSW Steel, Hindalco, Tata Steel and Vedanta.

Meanwhile, Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought Rs 695 crore worth of domestic stocks on Wednesday, data available with NSE suggested. DIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 525 crore, data suggested.

Tata Motors, SAIL, Grasim Industries, Adani Enterprises, Adani Green, Apex Frozen, Bajaj Electricals, Britannia Industries, MRF, PTC India and Welspun Corp are among companies set to announce their December quarter results today.