Indian Shares End Little Changed Amid RBI Rate Hold

(RTTNews) - Indian shares ended a choppy session flat to slightly lower on Wednesday even as a sharp fall in oil prices helped ease concerns around inflation and interest rates.

Brent crude futures held steady around $80 per barrel today after Yemen's Houthi forces announced a new ship attack in the Red Sea.

However, prices were down more than 9 percent so far this week amid rising optimism over a potential interim agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The pullback in oil prices reduced the pressure on global bond yields and weakened the dollar in international markets.

Investors also reacted to the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy announcement, which came along expected lines.

The central bank kept its policy rate unchanged at 5.25 percent and retained the policy stance at "neutral" despite signs of rising inflation due to higher crude oil prices and a weaker monsoon season.

The 30-share BSE Sensex ended the session up 152.05 points, or 0.19 percent, at 78,581 while the NSE Nifty index closed little changed with a positive bias at 24,624.65.

The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes gained 0.3 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

The market breadth was strong on the BSE, with 2,310 shares rising while 1,923 shares fell and 215 shares closed unchanged.

Mahindra & Mahindra, SBI, NTPC and UltraTech Cement all rose around 2 percent while BEL, Reliance Industries, HCL Technologies and TCS fell around 1 percent each.