Rate sensitive stocks down post RBI policy

Interest-sensitive realty, banking and auto stocks fell up to 6 per cent today after the Reserve Bank kept interest rates unchanged in its bi-monthly monetary policy.
Among realty stocks, Indiabulls Real Estate plunged 5.33 per cent, DLF by 4.77 per cent and Unitech by 4.77 per cent. Anant Raj fell by 2.56 per cent, Phoenix Mills by 2.25 per cent and Godrej Properties by 1.63 per cent.
Tracking losses in these counters, the BSE realty index lost 2.66 per cent to settle at 1,581.27.
Among banking scrips, Bank of India fell by 3.54 per cent, AXIS Bank lost 2.18 per cent, while Yes Bank (1.77 per cent), Canara Bank (1.71 per cent), ICICI Bank (1.52 per cent) and SBI (0.21 per cent) also declined.

The BSE banking index ended 0.47 per cent lower at 17,615.46.
Shares of Mahindra & Mahindra fell by 1.62 per cent, Tata Motors was down 1.57 per cent and Hero MotoCorp by 0.76 per cent. The BSE auto index settled 0.06 per cent down at 17,746.90.

"Banking stocks and other rate sensitive sectors such as auto and realty declined sharply as RBI kept the key policy rates steady," said Rakesh Goyal, Senior Vice President, Bonanza Portfolio.
Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan today left all key rates unchanged citing continued risks to inflation and difficult external situation especially on the geopolitical front.

The short-term lending rate (repo) rate remained at 8 per cent, and the cash reserve requirement of banks at 4 per cent. The statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) has also been retained at 22 per cent.
"In line with market expectation, the RBI governor kept the key policy rate unchanged in the monetary policy today but we saw index moving erratically in both directions post announcement," said Jayant Manglik, President-retail distribution, Religare Securities.
In the broader market, the BSE benchmark Sensex ended at 26,630.51, up 33.40 points.