Shares in private sector banks dropped ahead of inflation data to be announced later today. ICICI Bank was down 1 per cent, after opening higher in trade, while HDFC Bank shed 1.29 per cent and Axis Bank dropped 2 per cent in trade.

Analysts feel that today's inflation data would be important ahead of the RBI policy on March 19 to decide on inflation rates. There is a belief that inflation rates would drop, but core inflation could continue to remain high.

The CPI inflation that came in earlier this week continue to remain in double digits with the reading for the month of Feb at 10.86 per cent.

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