Stocks ended in positive territory
today underpinned by rate-sensitive realty and banking shares
after the Reserve Bank decided to hold rates in line with
expectations.
Domestic institutional investors played sheet-anchor for
the market, which rallied for the fourth straight day.
According to traders, the RBI's decision to keep the
interest rate on hold is in sync with investor expectations.
A strengthening rupee, which breached the 65 level
against the dollar during the day, pepped up mood.
The BSE Sensex ended up 174.33 points, or 0.55 per cent,
at 31,671.71. The gauge had gained 337.57 points in the
previous three sessions.
The NSE Nifty followed suit and regained the key 9,900-
mark before closing up 55.40 points, or 0.56 per cent, at
9,914.90.
The RBI, in its fourth bi-monthly policy review for 2017
-18, kept the repo rate unchanged at 6 per cent. Reverse repo
has been retained at 5.75 per cent.
"Other than recapitalisation of PSU banks, there was
nothing new in the RBI policy, rather than acknowledgement of
reduction in GVA and increase in inflation. But this time, the
commentary is not as hawkish, which provides room for a rate
cut by the end of the year," said Vinod Nair, Head of
Research, Geojit Financial Services Ltd. "Market is unlikely
to react much to the event and move on with the factors like
domestic Q2 earnings season and global liquidity."
Risk sentiment received a boost after eight core sectors
grew to a five-month high of 4.9 per cent in August, helped by
robust show of coal, natural gas and electricity.
Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) stayed on with
the India story as they purchased shares net Rs 1,552.41
crore. But cracks remained in the form of share outflow from
foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), who net dumped shares of
Rs 693.03 crore yesterday, showed provisional data.
Rate-sensitive financial stocks were on the buy list.
State-owned SBI rose 0.82 per cent to Rs 253.35 while Kotak
Mahindra Bank was up 2.16 per cent at Rs 1,028.
In the Sensex bloc, Sun Pharma hit pay dirt jumping the
most by 2.98 per cent. Reliance Industries, ITC Ltd, Dr
Reddy's and M&M too turned green.
However, Bharti Airtel fell big, down 2.26 per cent.
In sectoral matrix, healthcare advanced 1.83 per cent,
followed by FMCG, oil and gas, PSU, realty and banking.
The broader markets too showed a higher trend, with BSE
small-cap and mid-cap indices surging up to 0.79 per cent.
Most other Asian indices closed higher. Chinese stock
exchanges remained shut today for a public holiday. Europe
offered a mixed picture.
(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
04:59 PM IST