Sensex Ends 215 pts Lower, Nifty Below 16,400 Amid Volatility Post Repo Rate Hike

Domestic equity market benchmarks BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 ended 0.4 per cent down each on Wednesday, after RBI’s repo rate hike. BSE Sensex fell 215 points or 0.4 per cent to settle at 54892, while Nifty 50 index shut shop at 16356, down 60 points or 0.4 per cent. Tata Steel, State Bank of India (SBI), Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, TCS, Titan Company, Bajaj Finance, Maruti Suzuki were top index gainers. On the contrary, Bharti Airtel was the top drag, followed by ITC, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Asian Paints, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank among others.

Among the broader market, the BSE Midcap and the Smallcap indices also ended with minor losses. The breadth too was marginally negative. Sectorally, the BSE Telecom index shed 1.6 per cent. The Energy and FMCG indices were down a per cent each. On the positive front, the BSE Realty index surged nearly 2 per cent.

Among other individual stocks – MRPL soared over 9 per cent. The stock traded at its highest level since October 2018 and has more-than-doubled in the last two months.

Bata India slipped 2.5 per cent after the promoter company reportedly recently divested 3.6 million shares or 2.8 per cent stake of the footwear company for nearly Rs 613 crore through open market transactions.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said: “RBI turned realistic by withdrawing their accommodative stance, realising the need for front-loaded action and increased inflation forecast by 100bps to 6.7%. On the bright side, there were some positive points like no increase in CRR, economic growth was maintained healthy at 7.2% and no additional measures were announced to reduce the liquidity of the banking system. However, the focus shifted to the global market, which is anticipating a hawkish Fed policy, stated next week”

Global Cues