BSE Sensex, Nifty Turn Flat As RBI Keeps Rate on Hold

The BSE Sensex and Nifty turned flat after the Reserve Bank of India kept the key policy rates unchanged, which was mostly on expected lines.

The Sensex was down 9 points at 26,588 whereas the Nifty traded 0.06 per cent lower at 7,964.90 as of 11.12 a.m.

The rate sensitive sectors like banks, and realty fell marginally. Bank Nifty was down 0.3 per cent, and CNX Realty index was down 0.26 per cent. However the CNX Auto index was up 0.62 per cent.

Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday kept the repo rate unchanged at 8 per cent, CRR at 4 per cent and the reverse repo rate at 7%. The Reserve Bank also maintained status quo on SLR rated.

However the RBI said, it would cut the ceiling on bonds that must be kept under the held-to-maturity (HTM) category from the current 24 percent to 22 percent in stages starting in the bi-weekly cycle beginning in January 10, 2015.

The RBI's credit policy was mostly on expected lines as 43 out of the 46 economist surveyed by Reuters have expected RBI to keep rates unchanged.

Among the defensives CNX Pharma index was up 0.85 per cent whereas the IT index was down 0.44 per cent.

Out of the 50 stocks in Nifty 21 stocks advanced and 29 stocks declined. HDIL was the top gainer in Nifty with 1.97 per cent gains followed by Bajaj Auto. DLF and Power Grid Corporation were the top loser in Nifty which were down between 1.5 to 2 per cent each.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.50 per cent and 0.45 per cent respectively outperforming the Nifty and Sensex.