Indian equities traded slightly lower on Thursday morning ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy decision later in the day.

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All economists on the CNBC-TV18 panel unanimously voted for a 25 basis points rate cut and four of the five members expect the RBI to keep a 'neutral' stance.

The BSE Sensex dipped over 68 points to trade at 40015 in initial trade, while the Nifty50 was down by 29 points to trade below 12,000 mark, at 11992.80. The Nifty Bank fell 0.42 percent, while the Nifty MidCap index shed 0.22 percent.

Indian financial markets were shut on Wednesday on account of a public holiday.

Benchmark indices opened with minor gains and soon slipped into the red as investors remained jittery over developments related to the Dewan Housing Finance Corp Ltd and its impact on the wider financial sector. Global cues also didn't inspire confidence as lingering fears of trade tariff disputes of the US vis-a-vis China and Mexico dented investors' risk appetite.

Among Nifty50 gainers, Power Grid, Indian Oil, Tata Motors, Asian Paints and Dr Reddy's advanced between 1 and 2 percent.

Major losers were GAIL, Yes Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Zee Entertainment and IndusInd Bank, which fell between 2.5 and 7.5 percent.

GAIL shares fell more than 7 percent as the state-owned gas behemoth's tariff hike was lower than expected.

DHFL shares fell more than 14 percent as Crisil, ICRA and CARE downgraded the mortgage lender after the company defaulted on its interest payments on NCDs on Tuesday.

Shares of Tata Motors gained over 1 percent after the company announced that its arm Jaguar Land Rover and BMW have entered a pact to develop next-generation electric cars.

Meanwhile, the Indian rupee opened weaker at 69.40 against the US dollar on Thursday. On Tuesday, the home currency had settled against the greenback at 69.25.

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