Domestic indices on Tuesday extended their losses from the previous session as the overall sentiments still remain cautious amongst investors as they are worried about inflation and RBI's policy meeting's outcome amid inflation.
At 10.02 a.m., Sensex was 1.1 per cent down at 55,037 points, whereas nifty down 1.1 per cent at 16,388 points.
The three-day Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy review meeting that started on Monday will have a bearing in the market movement going ahead.
Though the RBI raising policy rates in the ongoing monetary policy committee meeting is a "no brainer", as said by its Governor Shaktikanta Das in a recent interview, investors, however, await the actual degree of percentage hike before taking fresh positions and future course of action in the financial markets.
"Two crucial numbers coming this week are significant, RBI's rate hike tomorrow and the inflation rate in the US expected on Friday. RBI's rate hike is a foregone conclusion; the only unknown is the quantum of the rate hike. Even if the rate hike is by a steep 50bp, the market is unlikely to be impacted much since frontloading of the rate hike will be more effective in anchoring inflation expectations," said V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
The market direction is likely to be influenced more by the inflation in the US, which, in turn, will decide how far the US Fed will go in raising rates because it be the key determinant of possible 'risk on' or 'risk off' in equity markets globally, said Vijayakumar.
"Rising rate scenario will improve the margin of the banking sector since deposit rates lag lending rates. The most attractively valued segment in the market now is financials, particularly banking."
