Live
- Rural students told to pursue higher education
- Fishery activities get a big boost in TDP budget
- Today’s welfare measures aim to empower: Nirmala Sitharaman
- Six scholars, including two women, win Infosys Prize 2024
- Gurukula zonal level sports meet concludes
- Vagdevi Jr College student selected for national basketball tourney
- Maoist area committee member arrested
- Collectorate staff protest attack on DC
- Villagers urge authorities to continue launch service even after construction of bridge
- MLA Padmavathi launches free lunch for readers
Sensex rises again after RBI makes no changes in policy rates
The BSE Sensex on Wednesday, closed about 81 points higher at 31,271.28 after the Reserve Bank maintained status quo on policy rates, resulting in gains for rate- sensitive sectors like banking, realty and auto.
Mumbai: The BSE Sensex on Wednesday, closed about 81 points higher at 31,271.28 after the Reserve Bank maintained status quo on policy rates, resulting in gains for rate- sensitive sectors like banking, realty and auto.
The Met department's revised forecast on monsoon and strengthening rupee also bolstered the domestic equities.
The central bank left lending rates unchanged citing risks to inflation due to spurt in farm loan waivers by states but raised lending capacity of banks to support economic growth.
RBI Governor Urjit Patel-led MPC for the fourth straight time kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.25%. The reverse repo has been kept at 6%.
The BSE Sensex took off on a positive note at 31,252.71 and advanced to 31,346.99. Later on profit booking, it slipped to touch a low 31,172.98 before ending 80.72 points, or 0.26%, higher at 31,271.28.
The gauge had lost 118.93 points in the previous session. The NSE Nifty after shuttling between 9,678.55 and 9,630.55, finally settled 26.75 points, or 28%, higher at 9,663.90.
Brokers said the RBI's decision to keep key interest rate unchanged was largely in line with investor expectations.
The central bank left the cash reserve ratio static at 4%. Banking index surged 0.73% as shares of state- run SBI rose 1.22% to Rs 290.75, followed by ICICI Bank 1.91% to Rs 324.75, Axis Bank 0.58% to 513.30 and HDFC Bank 0.10% to Rs 1,640.55.
The central bank has, however, slashed the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) or the percentage of deposits that banks have to park in government securities, by 0.5% to 20%. The move is expected to raise buoyancy in the loans market as banks would have slightly higher funds for lending.
The central bank also cut growth projection for the current fiscal to 7.3% from 7.4%. The RBI projected inflation in 2-3.5% range for the first half of 2017-18 and 3.5-4.5% for the second half.
