Rate sensitive shares end firm post RBI policy; Nifty Bank hits new high

Can Fin Homes, GIC Housing, PNB Housing and Gruh Finance were up between 3% and 6%

Shares of rate sensitive sectors such as financials, automobiles and real estate ended firm after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept the repo rate and reverse repo rate unchanged at 6.25% and 6%, respectively, at Wednesday's monetary policy review, keeping in line with what analysts and experts had forecast.

Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Auto, Nifty Bank and Nifty Realty indices were up in the range of 0.24% to 1% on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), as compared to 0.28% gain in the Nifty 50 index. Bank Nifty ended 0.6% higher at 23,567. The index gained nearly 1% to hit its all-time high of 23,575 in intra-day trade post RBI policy.

Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Eicher Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki India, Hero MotoCorp and Indiabulls Real Estate from these sectors added more than 1% each.

Statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) was cut by 50 basis points to 20 per cent starting June 24, in order to provide more liquidity to banks.

RBI, however,  softened its hawkish stance owing to fall in retail inflation to a record low and weak growth. The retail inflation in April was 2.99%, well below RBI’s own target of 4%. The RBI lowered its inflation forecast for the current financial year.

Shriram City Union Finance, Can Fin Homes, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company, GIC Housing Finance,  PNB Housing Finance and Gruh Finance, from the financials, were up between 3% and 6%.

BANK	LATEST	PREV CLOSE	GAIN(%)
ORIENTAL BANK	157.70	151.40	4.16
DCB BANK	203.25	196.40	3.49
SOUTH IND.BANK	28.40	27.65	2.71
BANK OF INDIA	146.15	142.50	2.56
CITY UNION BANK	173.80	169.50	2.54
STAND.CHART.PLC	53.00	51.70	2.51
CORPORATION BANK	51.50	50.25	2.49
FEDERAL BANK	115.15	112.70	2.17
ICICI BANK	324.95	318.65	1.98
PUN. & SIND BANK	54.90	53.85	1.95
DENA BANK	34.30	33.70	1.78
KARNATAKA BANK	176.40	173.45	1.70
PUNJAB NATL.BANK	151.85	149.40	1.64
RBL BANK	550.20	541.95	1.52
CANARA BANK	363.45	358.05	1.51
ALLAHABAD BANK	71.65	70.60	1.49
BANK OF BARODA	176.90	174.50	1.38
ST BK OF INDIA	290.90	287.25	1.27
UNION BANK (I)	159.40	157.45	1.24
INDIAN BANK	314.70	310.85	1.24