Indian equities in trade on the expiry day continued to trade lower and ended weak after the RBI maintained status quo for the ninth straight time. Nifty at the close ended just above 24,100 levels, down 0.74 per cent or 180.5 points at 24,117 levels, while the 30-scrip BSE Sensex ended at 78,886.22, down 0.73 per cent or 581.79 points.

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Sectorally, barring gains in the pharma pack and some mild strength in the private banking and financial services indices, all sectors ended in the red. With IT, metals and consumer durable leading sectoral losses with a downside of up to 2 per cent.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services on markets performance today said, "The domestic market reversed its earlier gains as the RBI's decision to hold its current policy with a caution to revise upward the CPI and moderate the growth forecast for Q1."

Meanwhile the global market is focusing on US job data and the probability for deeper slowdown has raised concerns that the US economy is heading for a recession, forcing the Federal Reserve to cut rates faster than initially expected, he added.

Bond markets have been stable as the policy was in line with expectations. Also, there were no additional measures announced on liquidity absorption. 10-year Government securities yield is likely to trade in the range of 6.75 to 6.90 in the medium term. Liquidity is likely to be in surplus. Yields on Corporate bonds in the 1-3 year segment will stay elevated as they track higher bank deposits rates, noted Mihir Vora - CIO, TRUST Mutual Fund.

Meanwhile, European markets continued to trade in the red, with the French CAC registering the most cut of over 1 per cent.