Indian shares edged lower on Tuesday as investors remained cautious a day before the central bank's monetary policy decision, while tepid Asian markets also weighed on sentiment. The broader NSE index closed 0.09 percent lower at 10,118.25 while the benchmark BSE index ended 0.2 percent lower at 32,802.44.
The Reserve Bank of India is widely expected to keep policy rates on hold, but investors will watch for any hints of a cut at the February meeting, in the policy statement to be released on Wednesday. The central bank kicked off its two-day monetary policy committee meeting on Tuesday. Sentiment was also lukewarm in other major Asia markets as investors' rotation out of technology shares took a toll on some of the region's tech heavyweights.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed with falls in semi-conductor shares getting offset by gains in telecoms and financials. Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.5 percent, led by declines in high-flying technology shares. "The market is a little cautious ahead of the RBI policy decision and that's quite sentimental in nature. There has been some sell-off in the global markets of late, which hasn't happened in India. So some correction is in line with Asian markets as well," said Sumit Pokharna, deputy vice president at Kotak Securities. Almost all sectoral indexes on the NSE and BSE platforms were in the red.
Among gainers, Infosys Ltd extended its rally into a second session, rising as much as 1.8 percent, after the appointment of a new chief executive over the weekend.
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