RBI Monetary Policy: Interest rate-sensitive sectors were mixed on Wednesday, October 7, after the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) unanimously decided to raise the repo rate by 25 bps to 5.50% from 5.25%, marking the first rate hike in four years. The MPC also changed its stance to ‘calibrated tightening’.
The decision was already priced in by Dalal Street, with benchmark indices trimming losses following the announcement. The Sensex recovered around 450 points, or 0.6%, from the day's low to hit an intraday high of 72,969.57, while the Nifty recovered 123 points, or 0.5%, to an intraday high of 22,701.6.
The recovery came after the RBI raised its real GDP growth forecast for FY27 by 40 basis points to 7.1%.
"Strong capacity utilisation, robust credit flows and the government’s thrust on infrastructure are expected to sustain investment activity. While services exports are expected to remain buoyant, bilateral trade agreements should boost merchandise exports," the RBI said.
RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said that further rate cuts were off the table in the near term.