Markets slump, key rates unchanged

Markets came off from day’s high and have slipped into negative zone after the Reserve Bank of India maintained a status quo on key policy rates and also disappointed market expectations of a cut in the cash reserve ratio.  The RBI has said that liquidity will be managed to support growth.

The RBI kept the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), Repo rate and SLR unchanged. Repo rate was unchanged at 8%. CRR has been kept unchanged at 4.25%. Reverse Repo Rates has been kept unchanged at 7%.

By 1120 hrs, Sensex which had earlier touched an intra-day high of 19,330.60 was down 44 points at 19,200 and the 50-share Nifty which had touched an intra-day high of 5,882.70 dipped 18 points at 5,840.

Among the sectoral indices, rate sensitive Bankex and Realty indices were down between 1-2%.

Among the Sensex shares, SBI, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank have declined between 1-2% while index heavyweights Reliance Industries and Infosys were down nearly 0.6% each.