RBI rate cut fails to enthuse markets, Sensex tanks over 550 points

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India's rate cut announcement failed to enthuse stock markets on Thursday with the benchmark BSE Sensex cracking over 550 points and the NSE Nifty dropping 177 points.

Lowering the interest rates for the third time in a row, the six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday announced reduction of repo rates by 25 basis points to 5.75 percent in its second bi-monthly monetary policy of 2019-20.

The BSE Sensex tanked 553.82 points or 1.38 percent to 39,529.72 while the NSE Nifty fell 177.90 points or 1.48 percent to 11,843.75.

During the day, the Sensex it hit a low of 11,830.25 and high of 12,039.80 while the Nifty hit an intra-day low of 39,481.15 and a high of 40,159.26.

Top losers in the Sensex pack included IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, SBI, L&T, Tata Steel, M&M, Bajaj Finance, Vedanta, Tata Motors and RIL, tumbling up to 6.97 percent. Bucking the negative market trend, Coal India, PowerGrid, NTPC, HUL, Hero MotoCorp, Asian Paints and Infosys gained up to 1.92 percent.

Foreign institutional investors sold equity worth Rs 416.08 crore on Tuesday, and domestic institutional investors offloaded shares to the tune of Rs 355.42 crore, provisional data available with stock exchanges showed.