Closing Bell: RBI rate hike pause helps Sensex, Nifty rise for 5th day; realty stocks jump

Closing Bell: The Indian equity market closed higher on Thursday (April 6), extending the winning streak to the fifth straight session after the RBI unexpectedly kept policy rates unchanged.

At the market close, BSE Sensex rose 143.66 points or 0.24 per cent to settle at 59,832.97, while NSE Nifty gained 42.10 points or 0.24 per cent to finish at 17,599.15 after an initial downtick today.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday unexpectedly kept the benchmark rate unchanged after raising the interest rate by a cumulative 250 basis points in 11 months.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das; however, signalled to hike the interest rate again, if needed, saying the decision to pause was "for this meeting only". The RBI's six-member Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to keep the repurchase or repo rate unchanged at 6.50 per cent.

Among the Nifty50 stocks, Bajaj Finance emerged as the biggest gainer by climbing 3 per cent. Tata Motors, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma, Mahindra & Mahindra, State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Maruti, Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel were the other top winners.

HCL Technologies, Axis Bank, and ICICI Bank were among the laggards.

“The market is in a good mood, and this policy provides us with further cause to rejoice. However, given that we have witnessed a good recovery from recent lows and that we have a long weekend and a weekly expiry, some profit-taking or consolidation cannot be ruled out,” Santosh Meena, Head of Research, Swastika Investmart Ltd, said in his comment.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Japan and Shanghai ended lower, while Hong Kong settled in the green.

European equity markets were trading in positive territory during the afternoon trade. The US markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday.

Catch the latest updates on the first RBI policy review of the new financial year.

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