Indian equity benchmarks were trading lower on Thursday’s afternoon session following the negative trend in Asian markets. Traders were cautious ahead of the additional meeting of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) scheduled to be held on November 3. The off-cycle meeting of the RBI MPC comes after the central bank failed its inflation mandate.

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The Sensex was trading at 60,750 down by 155.84 points or 0.26% after trading in a high-low range of 60.994.37 and 60,485.14. On the index, 12 stocks were advancing and 18 were declining.

The broader indices were trading mostly red with the BSE Midcap index up by 0.14% and the Small-cap index down by 0.04%.

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The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities down by 1.42%, Power 1.34%, IT 1.10%, TECK 0.77% and Auto 0.59%. While Telecommunication up by 0.81%, Bankex 0.21%, FMCG 0.14%, and Financial Services 0.08% were the only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top losers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra down by 2.27%,  Power Grid Corp 1.78%, Mahindra & Mahindra 1.45%, Infosys 1.36% and  Ultratech Cement 1.29%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel up by 1.22%, Axis Bank 1.08%, SBI 0.79%, IndusInd Bank 0.74% and Titan Company 0.73% were the top gainers on the index.

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The Nifty was trading at 18,033.45 down by 49.40 points or 0.27% after trading in a high-low range of 18,106.30 and 17,959.20. On the index, 21 stocks were advancing, against 29 stocks declining.

The top losers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra down by 2.29%,  Hindalco 2.14%, Power Grid Corp 1.80%, Infosys 1.49% and Eicher Motors 1.48%. While Bajaj Auto up by 1.42%,  Bharti Airtel 1.27%,  Axis Bank 1.05%, SBI 0.85% and HDFC Life Insurance 0.82% were the top gainers on the index.

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Asian markets were trading lower, Nikkei 225 declined 0.06%, Shanghai Composite fell 0.13%, KOSPI Composite fell 0.33%, and Hang Sangfell 2.59%.