Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty turned choppy on Wednesday ahead of RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das's statement. Das is making the statement at a time when the inflation rates in the country have soared, breaching the central bank's estimate. India's retail inflation jumped to a 17-month high of 6.95 per cent in March from 6.07 per cent in February.
After surging over 200 points in early trade, the 30-share BSE benchmark declined over 700 points to trade below 56,250. Nifty too had opened in green but gave up the gains shortly and turned it southward. Nifty crashed more than 200 points to slip 16,900 at 1 PM.
From the Sensex pack, Dr Reddy's, Titan, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries, TCS and HDFC Bank were the prominent losers. In contrast, PowerGrid, NTPC, Infosys and Wipro were among the gainers.
The Nifty 50 pack was dragged majorly by heavyweights Reliance, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance and Adani Ports. Britannia, Infosys, ONGC, Power Grid and ITC were among the gainers.
Elsewhere in Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong were quoting lower. Stock exchanges in the US surged higher in the overnight trade on Tuesday.
On Monday, the BSE benchmark went lower by 84.88 points or 0.15 per cent to settle at 56,975.99 and the Nifty declined 33.45 points or 0.20 per cent to close at 17,069.10. Equity markets were closed on Tuesday for Eid-Ul-Fitr.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 1.08 per cent toUSD 106.10 per barrel.
Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth Rs 1,853.46 crore on Monday, according to stock exchange data.
