Policy impact: Rate-sensitive shares gain as RBI keeps key rates unchanged

At 10:31 am; Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Realty indices were up 1 per cent, against a 0.5 per cent gain in the benchmark Nifty50 index

Shares of rate sensitives' like financials including banks, non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and housing finance companies (HFCs), automobiles and real estate rallied smartly after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept the repo rate unchanged at 4 per cent, maintaining its accomodative stance to revive economic growth. The reverse repo rate also remained unchanged at 3.35 per cent.

At 10:31 am; Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Realty indices were up 1 per cent each, while Nifty Auto index was also off the lows of the day. In comparison, the benchmark Nifty50 index was up 0.5 per cent.

Among individual shares, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and State Bank of India (SBI) from the financials and Macrotech Developers, Sobha, Suntech Realty and Godrej Properties from real estate and TVS Motor Company, Tata Motors and Eicher Motors from the automobiles were up in the range of 1 - 2 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

The Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee (MPC) on Thursday kept key interest rates unchanged for a tenth straight meeting, retaining an accommodative stance amid the threat surrounding Omicron coronavirus variant. It projected GDP growth rate at 7.8 per cent for Financial Year 2022-23 and saw inflation at 4.5 per cent in the same period.

"RBI has again voted for growth by continuing the accommodative stance and retaining the current repo and reverse repo rates. Even though this might invite criticism of the central bank being behind the curve, the RBI governor has categorically communicated that continued policy support is warranted for a durable and broad-based recovery.", said Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"This clear pro-growth stance is desirable at the current juncture. Market has responded positively to the policy as of now with banking stocks exhibiting strength. However, the short to medium-term trend of the market is likely to be influenced by the inflation data in US expected late tonight", he added.