After surging 262 points in opening trade, the Sensex paired most of its gains to trade flat at 58,965.18, lower by 69.77 points at 11:43 hours. During the trade so far, the benchmark hit a high of 59,297.46 and a low of 58,876.36.

 The Nifty was also trading marginally higher by 5.20 points to 17,644.75. MPC has decided to keep benchmark repurchase (repo) rate at 4 per cent, Das said while announcing the bi-monthly monetary policy review. Consequently, the reverse repo rate will continue to earn 3.35 per cent interest for banks for their deposits kept with RBI.

 The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) also decided unanimously to remain accommodative, while focussing on withdrawal of accommodation to ensure that inflation remains within the target going forward, while supporting growth. This is the 11th time in a row that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das has maintained the status quo. RBI had last revised its policy repo rate or the short-term lending rate on May 22, 2020 in an off-policy cycle to perk up demand by cutting the interest rate to a historic low.