Subdued Trading Day

The week has ended on a more subdued note today.  Globally, news of economic weakening and poor US data have allowed a sense of caution to creep into global indices.  The initial joblessness data in the US has seen a rise in the rate of unemployment, showing that the recent recovery is not quite what it seems.  The choppiness in trading sessions is more pronounced.

Locally too, in India, some uneasiness is evident.  Nifty and Sensex were rangebound through most of the day.  The advancing stocks were more or less equal to the number of declining stocks.  The morning started out on a relatively strong note, but eventually the indices gave up gains and remained within a range with noticeable volatility.

Sectoral performance has ended the day relatively flat, as can be seen below.  Data is from the BSE website (click to enlarge):

On a surprise note, the RBI increased both the repo (the rate at which the banks borrow from the RBI) and the reverse repo (the rate at which the banks lend to the RBI) rates by 25 basis points (0.25%).  Click here for the full story.