At 9:18 am, the BSE Sensex was down 144 points, or 0.18%, at 81,297, while the Nifty50 slipped 20 points, or 0.10%, to 24,730.
The Reserve Bank of India is expected to cut its key lending rate by 25 basis points for the third consecutive meeting in its policy decision scheduled for 10:00 a.m. IST.
Among Sensex constituents, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, Bajaj Finserv, and Reliance Industries were the top laggards, declining up to 0.5%. Meanwhile, Tata Steel, NTPC, IndusInd Bank, Adani Ports, and Eicher Motors opened with gains.
On the sectoral front, Nifty Bank and Financial Services indices fell up to 0.2%, while Auto opened marginally lower. Nifty Realty, however, rose nearly 1%.
Among individual stocks, Ashoka Buildcon surged over 5% after receiving LOIs for a Rs 1,387 crore Intelligent Traffic Management System project across key regions in Maharashtra.