Sensex jumps over 200 points ahead of RBI policy meet

Mumbai: The benchmark BSE Sensex rallied over 200 points in early trade Monday driven by gains in financial stocks ahead of the Reserve Bank's bi-monthly policy review.

The 30-share index was trading 203.82 points, or 0.51 per cent, higher at 39,918.02. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty spurted 48.35 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 11,971.15.

In the previous session on Friday, the Sensex settled 117.77 points, or 0.30 per cent, lower at 39,714.20, and the Nifty settled lower by 23.10 points, or 0.19 per cent, at 11,922.80.

Top Sensex gainers in early session Monday include Hero MotoCorp, Asian Paints, Bajaj Auto, HUL, HDFC twins, PowerGrid, TCS and Bajaj Finance, rising up to 3 per cent.

While, ONGC, Yes Bank, Tata Motors, SBI, M&M and RIL fell up to 1.77 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is slated to announce its bi-monthly policy Thursday. The central bank had cut the short-term lending rate (repo rate) by 25 basis points each in its



last two policy reviews.

The MPC headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das will meet for three days beginning June 3 to firm up the second bi-monthly monetary policy of the fiscal.

According to experts, the Reserve Bank may go for another round of rate cut, third in a row, on Thursday to prop up the economic growth which dropped to a five-year low in the final quarter of 2018-19.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors bought equity worth Rs 676.15 crore on Friday, and domestic institutional investors purchased shares to the tune of Rs 394.09 crore, provisional data available with stock exchanges showed.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in China, Japan and Korea were trading on a weak note in their respective early sessions.

On the currency front, the rupee also appreciated 24 paise to 69.45 against the US dollar.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, were trading 1.13 per cent lower at 61.29 per barrel.