An evening walk down Dalal Street on December 5, 2018

It’s a negative close for the market for second consecutive session as investors reacted to the stance on interest rates by the Reserve Bank of India. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept interest rates unchanged, but sharply cut the inflation targets for October-March.

However, equity benchmarks are off their low points as the Sensex had cracked over 300 points, while the Nifty tested 10,750-mark.

The Street had a cautious day of trade ahead of the meeting, while weak global cues also weighed on indices. Rate-sensitives such as banks, automobiles and real estate stocks were all in the red. After the policy announcement too, investors reacted negatively.

Lower crude prices based on global growth concerns failed to shore up the market too.

Selling was visible across all major sectors, with automobiles, banks, consumption, infrastructure, metals and pharma ending in the red. The Nifty Midcap was down over a percent.

At the close of market hours, the Sensex was down 249.90 points or 0.69% at 35884.41, while the Nifty was lower by 80.20 points or 0.74% at 10789.30. The market breadth was negative as 799 shares advanced, against a decline of 1,744 shares, while 145 shares were unchanged.