Equities trade lower ahead of RBI monetary policy meet

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices were in the negative zone during early hours on Thursday as investors awaited the outcome of Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee meeting on key interest rates.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down 127 points at 39,957 while the Nifty 50 dipped 59 points to 11,963. Except for FMCG, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red.

Among stocks, GAIL saw a sharp decline of over 9 percent. Indiabulls Housing Finance dropped nearly 5 percent, Yes Bank 2.8 percent and Grasim over 2 percent.

However, Powergrid gained 1.7 percent while Titan traded with a gain of over 1 percent. The other gainers were Eicher Motors, Indian Oil and Hindustan Lever.

Meanwhile, Asian shares were mixed as investors feared a looming US trade war with Mexico which could further depress global growth. Japanese and Chinese shares dipped while they were flat in Hong Kong, a day after US stocks closed higher.

On late Wednesday, sentiment soured after a meeting between US and Mexican officials ended with scant sign of progress.

[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]