Indian equity benchmarks ended failed to hold on to early gains and ended with marginal losses for the seventh straight session on Thursday. Gains got trimmed, as traders got cautious amid a private report stating that Reserve Bank of India is expected to increase its policy rate by half a point for the third time in a row as the currency’s plunge to a record low this month complicates the battle against inflation.

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The Sensex fell 188.32 points or 0.33% to settle at 56,409.96. During the day, it hit a high of 57,166.14 and a low of 56,314.05. The Nifty slipped 40.50 points or 0.24% to end at 16,818.10.

The broader indices ended in green with the BSE Mid cap index up by 0.31% and the Small cap index up by 0.63%. The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.52%, Healthcare up by 1.37%, FMCG up by 0.96%, PSU up by 0.63%, and Realty up by 0.40%, while Utilities down by 1.38%, Power down by 1.30%, IT down by 0.60%, Bankex down by 0.42% and TECK down by 0.34% were the top losing indices on BSE.

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Major laggards from the Sensex pack were Asian Paints down by 5.22%, Tech Mahindra 1.86%, Titan Company 1.69%, Kotak Mahindra 1.49%, Bajaj Finance 1.36%, TCS 1.32%, Wipro 1.14% and Bajaj Finserv 0.94%.

Among the gainers were ITC up by 2.51%, Dr Reddys Labs 2.16%, Tata Steel 1.68%, Sun Pharma 1.38%, Nestle 1.17%, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC 0.92%, Bharti Airtel 0.53%.

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The rupee consolidated in a narrow range and settled 13 paise higher at 81.80 against the US dollar, ahead of the RBI monetary policy decision scheduled to come out on Friday.

Asian markets ended mostly lower with the Shanghai Composite down by 0.13%, the Hang Seng down by 0.49%, and the Nikkei 225 was up by 0.95%.

European stock exchanges were trading lower in mid-session deals. The US markets bounced back on Wednesday and ended higher.

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Brent crude, the international oil benchmark slipped dipped 0.45% to $88.92 per barrel.

According to stock exchange data, foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth Rs 2,772.49 crore on Wednesday.