Rate-sensitive stocks trade mixed after RBI maintains status quo on repo rate, stance

RBI MPC policy decision: Rate-sensitive stocks were mixed on Friday, April 5, after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent. While real estate, and consumer durables stocks traded in the green, bank and financial services counters traded flat with a positive bias, while auto stocks traded lower.

Rate-sensitive stocks are those stocks that are influenced by changes in interest rates.

At around 10:08 a.m., Nifty Consumer Durables was up 0.27 per cent and Nifty Realty was up 1.07 per cent, while Nifty Bank and Nifty Financial Services were flat with a positive bias. On the other hand, Nifty Auto declined 0.10 per cent.

In the Nifty Bank basket, seven stocks advanced and five declined. Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, and ICICI Bank were the major losers on the Nifty Bank index, slipping between 0.77 per cent and 1.34 per cent.

Among Nifty Financial Services stocks, 10 advanced and 10 declined; in Nifty Consumer Durables, eight stocks advanced and seven declined; and in Nifty Realty, eight stocks advanced and two declined.

This was the first MPC meeting of the financial year 2024–25 (FY25). In the last bi-monthly review, the RBI chief-led MPC voted 5:1 to keep the repo rate—or the key interest rate at which the central bank lends short-term funds to commercial banks—unchanged at 6.5 per cent while maintaining the "withdrawal of accommodation" policy stance. Both decisions were in line with the expectations of most economists.

The repo rate is a crucial tool used by central banks to regulate the economy and control inflation.

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