Indian markets on Friday were volatile and in negative territory during the morning trade. At 9.25 IST, the 30-share Sensex fell 0.33 per cent to 56,224 while the Nifty was down 0.31 per cent to 16,786, as market participants track global cues and wait for RBI announcements.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to raise the repo rate by 50 basis points during the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meet, in line with the US Federal Reserve rate hike.

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Some of the gainers were Sun Pharma, Reliance, Ultra Cement, Powergrid, ITC and Kotak Bank whereas Asian Paints, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Infosys, Tata Steel and HDFC Bank were among the laggards on the 30-share index.

As a pre-market comment, Mohit Nigam, head for portfolio management services, Hem Securities, said: “Benchmark Indices are expected to open on a negative note today (Friday) as suggested by trends on SGX Nifty.

US markets dipped once again on Thursday on the fears of economic recession led by Fed’s aggressive stance against inflation. European indices also closed in red yesterday. Asian markets are trading weak in the early Friday trade with Nikkei trading at -1.67%, Taiwan markets trading at -1.36% and HangSeng trading at -0.6% down today.”

The experts said the position of market equities seen during the early 6-7 sessions was a correction course and that the investors had already factored in a 50-bps hike of rates by RBI.

Rohin Agarwal, the vice-president, Avener Capital, said: “With Fed (Federal Reserve) leading the pack in hiking rates and other central banks following suit this month, the stage seems set for RBI to hike rates in upcoming MPC by 35+ bps to protect the rupee as well as contain inflation…”

Sensex on Thursday which started with a 500-point gain ended the day 190 points down at 56,410. Bank of England’s intervention on Wednesday to stabilise its currency gave the morning impetus to the market but the negative sentiments soon took over the investors.

Indian rupee consolidated in a narrow range and settled 13 paise higher at 81.80 against the US dollar on Thursday, ahead of the RBI monetary policy decision. During the session on Thursday, the local currency saw a high of 81.58 and a low of 81.94. The Rupee finally ended at 81.80, up 13 paise from its previous close.