India's stock benchmarks erased gains to post their steepest decline in a week, dragged by Reliance Industries and Bajaj twins, ahead of U.S. Federal Reserve's rate-setting meeting that is likely to accelerate the monetary policy normalisation process. Investors will also await India's retail inflation data, scheduled to be announced later today.

The S&P BSE Sensex shed 0.86% to 58,283.42. The 30-stock gauge rose 0.71% in intraday trade to 59,203.37, before erasing the gains. This is the first time the Sensex reclaimed 59,000 mark since November 22. The NSE Nifty also declined by similar magnitude to 17,368.25. Reliance Industries Ltd. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 2%. Bajaj Finance Ltd., had the largest drop, falling 3.1%. Today, 36 of 50 shares fell, while 14 rose.

The S&P BSE MidCap almost mirrored its larger peers as it shed over 0.5% while the S&P BSE SmallCap outperformed with 0.25% gains. Barring S&P Consumer Durables which closed little changed, all the other 18 sectoral indices compiled by the BSE declined with S&P BSE Energy slipping 1.75%.

The market breadth was skewed in the favour of bulls. About 1,912 stocks advanced, 1,554 declined and 171 remained unchanged.

"The market witnessed profit selling in the second half after strong opening. Domestic market impacted by negative sentiments from other Asian markets as traders edged away from riskier assets amid renewed concerns about Covid-19, inflationary pressure in USA and outcome of upcoming Fed meeting", Mitul Shah, Head of Research at Reliance Securities wrote in a note.

• Shares of TTK Prestige Ltd. rose 7.59%, the biggest intraday gain in over six weeks, to a record Rs 11,827 apiece ahead of the stock split ex date on Tuesday.

• The company has fixed December 15 as the record date for purpose of sub-division of Rs 10 per equity share of the company into ten equity shares of Rs 1 each.

• Trading volume was quadruple the average for this time of day.

• Analysts have seven 'buy', two 'hold' and two 'sell' recommendations on the stock.

Shares of Greenlam Industries rose 4.89% in intraday trade to a record Rs 1,765 apiece after the company approved sub-division of every equity share having face value of Rs 5 each to five equity shares of Rs 1 each.

The rationale behind the split is to encourage wider participation of retail investors by making the shares more affordable and to enhance the liquidity of company's shares in the market.

Of the eight analysts tracking the company, six maintained 'buy', one maintained 'hold' and one maintained 'sell' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied a downside of 11%.

• BPCL sale timeline dependent on various factors.

• Government has received EoIs from bidders who are conducting due diligence.

• Since BPCL is being divested on a 'going concern' basis, the business activities of the company will continue after privatisation.

• There are appropriate provisions to continue subsidies keeping in mind the interests of LPG consumers of BPCL.

Source: Bhagwat Karad, MoS, Ministry of Finance, in a Parliament reply.