An evening walk down Dalal Street

After several sessions of rally in the recent past, including fresh milestones being hit, equity benchmarks on Wednesday took a breather. The Sensex managed to snap its 4-day winning streak, while the Nifty ended just below 11,350. The downward move followed Reserve Bank of India’s decision to hike key interest rates by 25 basis points to 6.5 percent.

The weakness was largely visible in banking and automobile names as investors reacted to the central bank’s announcement. The Nifty Bank managed to slip nearly 170 points.

Among broader markets, midcaps had a good day of trade, which managed to end marginally in the green. They were outperforming the benchmarks during the course of session. HDFC Twins & ICICI Bank dragged the market, while TCS, Reliance & ITC offered support.

The Sensex ended down by 84.96 points or 0.23% at 37521.62, while the Nifty ended lower by 10.30 points or 0.09% at 11346.20. The market breadth was narrow as 1,368 shares advanced, against a decline of 1,294 shares, while 161 shares are unchanged.