The stock market seemed to have tapered down expectations from the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy review today. The central bank continued to be cautious about the state of the economy. In its macro-economic report ahead of credit policy review, the central bank has maintained that monetary space is limited this fiscal.

The Sensex was down 65.30 points at 19670.47 while the Nifty fell 16.45 points at 5982.90. Rate sensitive stocks like banking, autos and realty looked weak in the initial trading session. HDFC, ICICI Bank, Hero MotoCorp, M&M and SBI were the big losers in the Sensex.

Recovering Thursday’s losses, Bharti Airtel was the big star of the day. The stock gained 2.5 percent as the telecom operator entered into a long-term strategic investment from Qatar Foundation endowment. Qatar Foundation to buy 5 percent stake in the company at Rs 340 per share.

Cement majors ACC (up 1.2 percent), Ambuja Cements (up 1.2 percent), Heidelberg Cement (up 0.1 percent) are likely to be in focus today ahead of announcement of January-March quarter earnings.

Gujarat Pipavav Port rose 9.2 percent on the back of strong January-March quarter earnings. Its net profit grew to Rs 35.4 crore from Rs 14.1 crore year-on-year. Sterlite Industries, Tata Steel, Jindal Steel and Dr Reddy’s Lab were major gainers in the Sensex.