Nifty Bank up 1% amid RBI MPC announcements; HDFC, HDFC Bank top gainers

The banking and financial stocks were trading with strength amid the Reserve Bank of India Monetary Policy Announcements. Heavyweights like HDFC Bank and HDFC were among the top gainers on the Nifty50. The announcements were made after the conclusion of three-day meeting of the MPC on Thursday.

The RBI Governor in its MPC policy speech said, “India in better position to meet credit demand, and banks need to continue capital augmentation activity and build buffer, while financial sector fully functional, resilient and anchored process of economic recovery.”

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The 12-share banking index Nifty Bank surged over 1 per cent to breach 39000-mark intraday, while the Financial Services Index also gained over 1 per cent to 18076-level minutes after the RBI Governor’s key rates announcement. Both the indices were in the red zone ahead of MPC meeting decision.

Banking heavyweights such as Kotak Bank, SBI, HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank each gained between 1-1.5 per cent aiding the Nifty Bank and overall Nifty Index to surge on Thursday. While Axis Bank RBL Bank, AU Bank, ICICI Bank and Bandhan Bank also surged between 0.3-1 per cent intraday.

On the contrary, IDFC Bank remained flat, while Bandhan Bank and PNB are trading weak during today’s session, each down up to 0.25 per cent.

In Financial Services, index heavyweight HDFC jumped almost 2 per cent minutes after the RBI Governor’s policy decision announcement, followed by Chola Finance, M&M Finance, REC Ltd, PFC each gained between 05.-1 per cent intraday. While Bajaj Finserv and Bajaj Finance, each gained around 0.4 per cent intraday today

On the other hand, HDFC AMC, SBI Life, HDFC Life, ICICI Pru Life from financial services category are in the red zone down between 1-0.1 per cent intraday today.

The overall market also surged aided most by banking and financial indices as the Sensex gained almost 370 points and Nifty50 gained above 17550-mark intraday on Thursday. While the broader markets surged too with Nifty mid-cap gaining by 0.23 per cent and Small-cap down 0.01 per cent.

The 5 of 6-membered MPC voted unanimously for keeping interest rate unchanged and decided to continue with its accommodative stance as long as necessary to support growth and keep inflation within the target. This is the tenth time in a row that the panel has decided to keep the policy rate unchanged in February policy.