Sensex slips 113 points ahead of RBI monetary policy review

The BSE Sensex fell for the fifth straight session on Monday, closing 113 points down at a nearly two-week low, as investors remained cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) second quarter monetary policy review.

The gauge's five day downtrend is its longest losing string in three months.

The 30-share index of the Bombay Stock Exchange, which had lost 210.37 points in previous four trading sessions, opened firm and hit the day's high of 20,771.36. However, bouts of profit-selling pulled the Sensex down to 20,570.28 - registering a loss of 113.24 points, or 0.55 per cent over Friday's close.

This is the lowest closing value since 20,415.51 (October 17).

FMCG, metal, realty and banking shares witnessed heavy selling amid expectations of at least 0.25 per cent repo rate hike by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on Tuesday.

Volatility was also high as market participants seemed direction-less on whether to roll over their positions in the equity futures & options (F&O) segment as contracts expire on Thursday, traders said.

On similar lines, the broad-based National Stock Exchange index lost 43.80 points, or 0.71 per cent to end at 6,101.10, after touching a low of 6,094.10.

Also, SX40 index, the flagship index of MCX-SX, closed nearly 60 points down at 12,249.69.

Prominent Sensex losers were ITC, SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Hindalco, Hindusan Unilever, Infosys, NTPC, Sun Pharma, Tata Steel and Tata Consultancy Services.

Sectorally, the BSE FMCG sector index suffered the most by losing 2.56 per cent, followed by Realty (2.10 per cent), Metal (1.63 per cent) and Banking (1.20 per cent).