India's Sensex surges 412 points as RBI keeps policy rates unchanged

Mumbai: The Indian equities markets benchmark Sensex jumped 412 points on Friday led by a strong buying support in the index heavyweight Reliance Industries as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept key policy rates unchanged in its first monetary policy review of the current financial year.

The 30 stock S&P BSE Sensex closed 412.23 points or 0.70 per cent higher at 59,447.18 points against its previous day’s close at 59,034.95 points. The Sensex was under selling pressure in the morning trade. It opened in the positive at 59,256.97 points but soon slipped into the red. It fell to a low of 58,876.36 points. The index witnessed strong buying support in the afternoon session. It rose to a high of 59,654.44 points in the intra-day.

The broader Nifty 50 of the National Stock Exchange jumped 144.80 points or 0.82 per cent to 17,784.35 points against its previous day’s close at 17,639.55 points. The Nifty touched a high of 17,842.75 points and low of 17,600.55 points in the intra-day.

The markets rallied sharply after the Reserve Bank of India kept key policy interest rates unchanged for the 11th time in a row.

In the first monetary policy review of the financial year 2022-23, the Central Bank kept the key policy repo rate unchanged. The RBI’s six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously to keep the policy repo rate unchanged at 4 per cent.

The repo rate is the interest rate at which the RBI lends short-term funds to banks.

The reverse repo rate, the interest rate at which the RBI borrows from banks, remains unchanged at 3.35 per cent. The marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank rate also remain unchanged at 4.25 per cent. This is the 11th time in a row that the central bank has kept key policy interest rates unchanged.

ITC surged 4.36 per cent to Rs 267.80. Mahindra & Mahindra jumped 2.70 per cent to Rs 857.10. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories soared 2.67 per cent to Rs 4432.

The index heavyweight Reliance Industries soared 1.75 per cent to Rs 2616.75. Titan soared 2.26 per cent to Rs 2514.50.

Only eight of the 30 scrips that are part of the Sensex closed in the red. Tech Mahindra fell 1.18 per cent to Rs 1451.60. Maruti Suzuki fell 1.04 per cent to Rs 7557.70. NTPC, HCL Technologies, Sun Pharma, HDFC and HDFC Bank were among the major Sensex losers.