Indices open flat ahead of RBI policy; NIFTY50 at 24,669, SENSEX up 118 points; rate-sensitive stocks mixed

The Indian stock market opened with marginal gains on Wednesday, August 6, as investors ’wait for the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy decision.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra will announce the third monetary policy statement of the current fiscal year (financial year 2025-26) on Wednesday, amid expectations of a pause on interest rates.

The market participants also remain cautious following US President Donald Trump’s fresh threat to India. Trump on Tuesday said India has not been a good trading partner and announced that he will raise the tariffs on New Delhi "very substantially" over the next 24 hours because it is buying Russian oil.

Rate-sensitive stocks like auto, financials, and realty sectors will be in focus amid RBI’s policy decision announcement. Nifty Auto was down 0.51%, while Nifty Realty tumbled 0.88% in the early session.

Among other sectors, Nifty Bank (0.14%) was trading up ahead of RBI’s announcement, while Nifty Pharma (-1.09%) took the lead among losers.

The broader market, however, was under pressure in the opening session, with both Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 falling 0.31% and 0.27%, respectively.

According to exchange data, on Tuesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth ₹22.48 crore on a net basis, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased ₹3,840.39 crore worth of equities.

On Wall Street, the stocks ended lower on Tuesday as investors weighed the impact of tariffs and corporate earnings, which also kept them on edge.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 61.90 points, or 0.14%, to end at 44,111.74; the S&P 500 fell 30.75 points, or 0.49%, to 6,299.19; and the Nasdaq Composite lost 137.03 points, or 0.65%, to 20,916.55.

Tracking the US markets, most of the indices in Asia were trading lower on Wednesday.

South Korea's KOSPI was down 0.35%, while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.57%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.21%, and the Shanghai Composite traded 0.27% lower.

As many as 2,420 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 1,164 were trading in the green, 1,161 were trading in the red, and 95 shares remained unchanged.

This indicates that the market breadth was neutral.

Meanwhile, 19 stocks hit their one-year highs in the early trade, while only 21 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Further, 34 stocks hit their upper circuits, while 22 hit their lower circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading 1.49% up at 11.89 levels.

Adani Ports was the most contributing stock, rising 1.61%, followed by Bharti Airtel (1.18%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (0.80%), SBI Life Insurance (0.76%) and Adani Enterprises (0.59%).

On the contrary, Dr Reddy’s (-1.15%), Cipla (-1.12%), Sun Pharma (-1.11%), Eternal (-1.06%) and Hero MotoCorp (-1.05%) were among the biggest laggards on the 50-share index.