Banks, FMCG firms, refiners and IT companies pulled the benchmark Sensexdown by another 43.10 points despite firm Asian cues amid sustained capitalinflows and the announcement of monetary policy by the apex bank.

The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer moved in a range of 15,463.46 and15,240.53 before ending the day at 15,331.94, a fall of 0.28 per cent over itsprevious close.

In its quarterly review of monetary policy, the Reserve Bank kept the key ratesunchanged and said there are signs of economic recovery but warned that theoverall scenario continued to be uncertain with fiscal consolidation posing achallenge.

The RBI retained the economic growth projection at 6 per cent with an upwardbias in the current fiscal and expected inflation to scale up to around fiveper cent by March 2010.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee after trading hours on Monday announced taxbreaks including a 1.0 per cent subsidy on the interest charged by commercialbanks for home loans up to Rs 10 lakh with a market value not exceeding doublethat amount.

Realty stocks attracted good buying with its index rising by 4.64 per cent atclose on fresh tax breaks for this sector. Bonanza Portfolio AssistantVice-President Avinash Gupta said, "The market is expected to consolidateat the current levels. However, the expiry of contracts may add tovolatility."

Hindustan Unilever tumbled 7.28 per cent on unfavourable first-quarter resultsannounced today. ICICI Bank dropped 2.37 per cent, Grasim 1.77 per cent, SBI1.70 per cent and RIL 1.46 per cent.
However, Tata Motors spurted by 10.47 per cent due to better-than-expected Q1results announced during trading hours yesterday. REL Infra rose 3.91 per cent,DLF 3.40 per cent, REL Com 2.98 per cent, Maruti Suzuki 2.84 per cent, TataSteel 2.54 per cent, Tata Power 2.30 per cent, ACC 2.10 per cent and NTPC 1.33per cent.

Reflecting rally in second-line counters, the total market breadth remainedpositive as 1,709 shares ended with gains while 945 finished with losses at theBSE.