Benchmark indices edged higher on Monday ahead of Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) 3rd bi-monthly policy review. Analysts expect the RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan to maintain status quo on the rates.
“We continue to expect RBI governor Raghuram Rajan to be on hold on August 5. This is now consensus,” BoFA-ML analysts said in a report. “We have penciled our first cut for December, if rains normalize, and in early 2015, in case of drought,” the report added.
The BSE benchmark, the Sensex was trading 86.57 points or 0.34% higher at 25,567.41 points, while the NSE’s Nifty was trading 33.65 points or 0.44% higher at 7,636.25 points at 10.30 am IST.
Experts believe markets could correct in the near-term. “Nifty may correct further from the current level and it may touch 7500 in the near term. Key near term support is at 7450. Resistance is at 7700,” Standard Chartered Securities said in its morning note.
Among sectoral indices, the BSE Realty (1.01%), BSE Consumer Durables (2.83%) and BSE FMCG (1.02%) were the major gainers.
Among individual stocks, Hindalco Industries Ltd (1.72%), Axis Bank (1.57%) and Tata Motors (1.55%) were trading in the green.
Most Asian markets were trading in the green. The Hang Seng (0.34%), Kospi (0.15%), Jakarta Composite (0.06%), Taiwan Taiex (0.53%) and Shanghai Composite (1.14%) were the major gainers.
