Rate sensitive stocks settle lower as RBI maintains status quo on rates

SBI, Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank and ICICI Bank were down in the range 1% to 2%.

The stocks of rate sensitive sectors - banking, real estate and automobiles – ended lower after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept the repurchase (repo) rate unchanged at 6% in its fifth bi-monthly monetary policy review. 

The Nifty PSU Bank, the largest loser among sectoral indices, settled the day 2% lower at 3,751. The Nifty Private Bank and Nifty Bank indices were down 1% each, as compared to 0.7% decline in the Nifty50 index. Nifty Auto and Nifty Realty index were down 0.78% and 0.41%, respectively.

"Given that interest rates are unlikely to