Stock Market Updates: Sensex, Nifty likely to open flat; RIL, TCS in focus

Indian benchmark indices are likely to open flat today as the Nifty futures were trading around 17,906 level on the Singaporean Exchange.

On Friday, Sensex reclaimed the 60K mark as investors turned bullish after the Reserve Bank maintained its accommodative stance in its bi-monthly monetary policy review.

Sensex jumped 381.23 points or 0.64 per cent to close at 60,059.06 and Nifty zoomed 104.85 points or 0.59 per cent to its fresh closing peak of 17,895.20.

Reliance Industries was the top Sensex gainer, rallying nearly 3.84 per cent, followed by Infosys, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, TCS and L&T. On the other hand, HUL, NTPC, Maruti, Dr Reddy's, Titan and Kotak Bank were among the top Sensex losers, falling up to 1.16%.

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities said, "Nifty moved above the bear candle of Wednesday and in the process almost reached the earlier all-time high of 17,948. A move above the all-time high could mean running into another resistance at 18,000 for some time. However if this is achieved, we could move even higher later on. Breadth of the market could deteriorate in the near term as the focus could now shift back to large caps."

The Reserve Bank of India expectedly kept interest rates unchanged at a record low but signalled the start of tapering pandemic-era stimulus measures on economic recovery taking root.

The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept the key lending rate or the repo rate unchanged at 4 per cent while the reverse repo rate or the borrowing rate was maintained at 3.35 per cent. It voted 5-1 to retain the accommodative stance, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said in an online broadcast.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 64.01 crore on October 8, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth Rs 168.19 crore, as per provisional data available on NSE.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.03% to end at 34,746.25 points, while the S&P 500 was down 0.19% to 4,391.35. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.51% to 14,579.54.