Banking stocks crash on RBI blast; ICICI Bank, IDFC, IndusInd, Yes Bank, Kotak react negatively on status quo

As expected the Reserve Bank of India today decided to keep policy  repo rate unchanged at 6.50%.Even though it was predicted that a status quo will take place in December 2018 policy, yet stock markets investors were not happy with the decision as both Sensex and Nifty dropped by over 300 points and 100 points respectively. Interestingly, it was banking stocks which emerged as top losers on Nifty. 

Nifty Bank was trading at 26,543 down by 150.80 points or 0.56%. However, within a few minutes of announcement, the index plunged by more than 170 points. 

On this index, the top losers involved - IDFC Bank below 3.33% at Rs 37.70 per piece, followed by IndusInd Bank at Rs 1604.35 below 1.92%, Yes Bank at Rs 173.60 per piece down 1.64%, Kotak Mahindra Bank at Rs 1209 per piece lower by 1.33% and ICICI Bank down 1.31% at Rs 353.25 per piece. 

Other banks like Federal Bank, PNB, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda and SBI dropped below 1%. 

Meanwhile, it was only HDFC Bank and RBL Bank were gainers surging sequentially by 0.45% and 0.17% trading at Rs 2,094.95 and 557.15 per piece respectively. 

The decision of the MPC is consistent with the stance of calibrated tightening of monetary policy in consonance with the objective of achieving the medium-term target for consumer price index (CPI) inflation of 4% within a band of +/- 2%, while supporting growth.