Should you dump rate sensitive stocks post the RBI's surprise rate hike?

The RBI in its bid to tame inflation announced a 40 basis points (bps) hike in repo rate and 50 bps increase in Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), in an unscheduled meeting on Wednesday. This came as a shocker for the markets, and the benchmark indices ended with heavy losses of over 1,300 points or 2.30 per cent for the BSE Sensex and 392 points or 2.29 per cent on the Nifty 50. 

Real estate and automobiles, which were showing signs of a nascent recovery, will bear the brunt of higher interest rates following the central bank’s rate hike because