Indian shares closed down 0.51 percent on Wednesday, as banking and finance stocks slipped ahead of next week's central bank monetary policy review, dealers said. They said investors remain wary that the Reserve Bank of India may tighten monetary policy further to curb inflation.
The benchmark Mumbai Sensex fell 85.83 points to 16,698.04, snapping a six-day run of gains. "Some amount of profit booking was seen. We could see consolidation as investors await the monetary policy," said Bhaskar Kapadia, a partner with brokerage Pyramid Securities.
Last Thursday, the central bank hiked by half a percentage point the amount of cash commercial banks must keep in reserve, to curb inflation. India's inflation slowed by nearly three-tenths of a percentage point to 7.14 percent for the week ended April 5, still well above the central bank's top-end comfort level of five percent.
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