Equity markets closes down, Sensex declines below 25000-mark

Equity benchmarks on Tuesday ended with loses as the Sensex declined 65.94 points to 24900.46 and the Nifty fell 18.10 points to 7597.

Stocks like HDFC, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy`s Labs, GAIL, Cipla and NTPC were down 1-3% while Tata Motors topped buying list on Sensex, up 3.5% followed by Reliance Industries, Infosys, Maruti, Axis Bank, Adani Ports, SBI, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel and Hindalco Industries with 1-3% upside.

The Reserve Bank is likely to approach policy easing with caution and go for a measured cut next week amid recent bounce in global oil prices and partial implementation of a public sector wage bill. The report by DBS stated that a 25 bps cut is largely factored in with few quarters also discussing the possibility of a more aggressive 50 bps cut, but there is little scope of a bunched up move."Given the recent bounce in global oil prices, partial implementation of a public sector wage bill and indications that the US Fed might resume rate normalization in April/June, we see little scope of a bunched up move," report stated.The RBI is set to present the its first bi-monthly monetary policy for 2016-17 on April five.