The apex bank’s announcement of hiking the repo rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 7.5% from 7.25% weighed heavily on the 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which plunged by 121.04 points, or 0.85%, to close at 14,090.92 points. The broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also impacted and was down by 41.75 points or 1.01% to close at 4,082.7 points.

The Sensex opened on a positive note on Wednesday and went on to touch a high of 14,269.31 points. With the market pundits predicting a negative outlook on Tata Steel in the short term, the BSE metal index was under pressure and pulled down the whole market downwards. The benchmark index touched an intra-day low of 14,045.61 points.

Manish Sonthalia, VP, market strategist and portfolio manager, Motilal Oswal Securities, said, “A number of factors have weighed on Wednesday’s market like RBI’s credit policy, Tata-Corus deal and a weak Asian and global markets, which dragged the markets downwards. As the third quarter results season of the India Inc have almost come to an end, the market is expected to trade in a range bound manner, in the coming days.”

With the index heavy weights slipping downwards, the side counters also witnessed selling pressure resulting in a negative market breadth. On the BSE, a total of 1,713 stocks lost ground and ended in red while 938 stocks advanced and ended on a positive note. 38 stocks ended on a flat note. Among the Sensex pack 19 stocks declined while 11 stocks managed to hold ground and end on a high note. The BSE mid-cap index lost 0.91% while BSE small-cap index was down by 0.96%.