The Indian stock market landed in positive territory on Monday, July 31 ahead of the central bank’s key rate decision. At its meeting scheduled for August 2, the regulator is expected to cut the rate by 25 bps to 6.00% from the current 6.25%, which investors read as positive. Pharmaceutical stocks underperformed the broader market, while the session’s top advancers included India’s largest lender State Bank of India, which surged on reports that it revised deposit rates. Specifically, from today, the bank will offer 3.5% on deposits up to INR 10 mn, leaving 4.0% unchanged on deposits over INR 10 mn. Recapping the benchmarks, the Nifty 50 advanced 0.63% to 10,077.10, and the BSE Sensex closed up 0.63% at 32,514.94. By 10:40 GMT the USD/INR pair firmed 0.07% to 64.176, while the EUR/INR eased 0.08% to 75.2722. The 10-year Indian government bond yield stood at 6.451%. As noted above, pharmaceutical names took a hit. In particular, Dr.Reddy’s Laboratories and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries plunged 3.32% and 3.48%, respectively. Meanwhile, State Bank of India and ICICI Bank added 4.48% and 2.18%. Engineering firm Larsen & Toubro was well bid, gaining 2.8% after reporting that quarterly profit climbed 46% y-o-y. The daily chart shows that the BSE Sensex is trading within a rising band, hovering near its upper end, while the Slow Stochastic Oscillator is about to exit overbought territory. As a result, a downturn towards the lower range of the band can be expected in the short term.