Markets surge as RBI keeps rates unchanged

RBI surprised the market by keeping the repo rate and cash reserve ratio unchanged.

Markets extended gains in late morning trades after the Reserve Bank of India at its mid-quarter review today surprised the market by keeping the repo rate and cash reserve ratio unchanged.

At 11:10AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 221 points at 20,833 and the 50-share Nifty was up 71 points at 6,210.

The RBI at its mid-quarter review today kept the repo rate unchanged at 7.75% and the CRR unchanged at 4%.

The rupee was trading higher after the RBI's rate hike. The rupee was at 61.81 versus 62.01 close on Tuesday.

Asian markets were trading higher with Japan's benchmark index Nikkei leading the gains on reports that the Prime Minister may shortly unveil plans to boost the economy. Nikkei was up 1.6% while Hang Seng was up 0.5%. Shanghai Composite and Straits Times were trading flat.

The BSE Bankex was the top gainer among the sectoral indices on the BSE up 2.6% followed by Capital Goods, Realty, Power, Oil and Gas and Auto indices.

Bank shares were among the top Sensex gainers. HDFC, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI were up 1.8-3% each.

Other Sensex gainers include, Reliance Industries, L&T, TCS, ONGC, M&M and Infosys among others.

Among other shares, JK Tyre and Industries has dipped over 4% to Rs 153 after the company allotted over 4 million warrants to the promoters at a price of Rs 115 per share. The board has allotted 4.3 million warrants to the promoters/promoter Group on preferential basis at a price of Rs 115 per warrant, each warrant convertible into one equity share of the face value of Rs 10, JK Tyre and Industries said in a BSE filing.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.9% and the Small-cap index was up 0.6%.

Market breadth was strong with 1,081 gainers and 587 losers on the BSE.