Rate sensitive stocks gain post RBI policy

Rate sensitive stocks rose up to 4 per cent today after the Reserve Bank left policy rates unchanged but raised lending capacity of banks to support growth.
Among bank stocks, Federal Bank rose by 2.04 per cent, ICICI Bank gained 1.91 per cent, PNB 1.77 per cent, Bank of Baroda 1.40 per cent, SBI 1.22 per cent and Axis Bank 0.58 per cent.
The BSE bank index rose by 0.73 per cent to end at 26,721.93.
From the auto pack, Bharat Forge went up by 3.78 per cent, M&M 1.49 per cent, Maruti 1.22 per cent, Ashok Leyland 1.14 per cent and Hero MotoCorp 0.74 per cent.

The BSE auto index closed the day 0.70 per cent higher at 24,251.06.
Realty stocks also attracted buying, with Indiabulls Real Estate rising 4.11 per cent, Sobha 0.66 per cent and Godrej Properties 0.23 per cent.

The BSE realty index gained 0.32 per cent to end at 1,954.11.
The BSE benchmark Sensex ended the day with a gain of 80.72 points at 31,271.28.
"The policy will support banks to lend more due to the advantage of 50 bps cut in SLR," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services Ltd.
RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) for the fourth straight time kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.25 per cent. The reverse repo, at which RBI borrows, will be 6 per cent.

The central bank however slashed the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) or the percentage of deposits that banks have to park in government securities, by 0.5 per cent to 20 per cent.
The move is expected to raise buoyancy in the loans market as banks would have slightly higher funds for lending.