Sensex up 460 pts on RBI's bond yield mgt step, steady FY22 GDP growth rate

Stock market updates: The domestic equity markets welcomed RBI governor Shaktikanta Das' decision to keep rates unchanged during the first bi-monthly monetary policy of FY22, along with holding the GDP growth rate steady at 10.5 per cent for new financial year. Despite the recent surge in Covid-19 cases, the governor said the central bank and the government are prepared to tackle the second wave.

Soothed by the comments, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex index leaped 700 points and hit the day's high of 49,900. The Nifty50, meanwhile, jumped nearly 200 points and hit 14,880 on the back of an across-the-board buying. Banking and financial stocks outperformed on Wednesday with the Nifty Bank, Private Bank, and PSU Bank indices settling higher in the range of 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent.

The Nifty Financial Services, IT, Pharma, Metal, and Realty indices, on the other hand, gained up to 1.5 per cent.

Overall, the Sensex index gained 460 points, or 0.9 per cent, to end at 49,662 levels while the Nifty index closed at 14,819 levels, up 135 points. 

In the broader markets, smallcap stocks outrun both, mid and largcap peers. The S&P BSE SmallCap index was last up 1.3 per cent while the BSE MidCap index added 0.8 per cent.

RBI Policy Highlights

Given the rise in the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) infection and imposition of fresh localised lockdowns, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) monetary policy committee (MPC) on Wednesday decided to leave the key repo-rate unchanged at 4 per cent. It also maintained the policy stance as ‘accommodative’ to keep the liquidity taps running in the economy.

“The recent surge in infections, however, imparts greater uncertainty to the outlook,” RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said today, setting the stage for the financial year of 2021-22 (FY22). April policy was the first bi-monthly MPC meeting of the new fiscal year. “Localised and regional lockdowns could dampen the recent improvement in demand conditions and delay the return of normalcy,” he said. READ KEY HIGHLIGHTS HERE

Global markets

Asian shares pulled back from a three-week high on Wednesday, dragged lower by Chinese stocks. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan was last down 0.1 per cent after Chinese and Hong Kong shares opened in the red. China’s bluechip CSI300 index was down about 1 per cent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.8 per cent.

That said, Japan’s Nikkei was a shade higher while Australian shares rose 0.6 per cent and South Korea’s KOSPI added 0.3 per cent. New Zealand ended 0.7 per cent higher.

In Europe, the pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.2 per cent while the German DAX and France’s CAC 40 were flat. The UK’s exporter-heavy FTSE 100, however, gained 0.3 per cent as a weaker pound lifted the dollar earners.

(With inputs from Reuters)