The Reserve Bank of India, after its bi-monthly meeting held on February 5-7, decided to bring the marquee interest rate or repo rate, down by 25 basis points. This brought the interest rates down to 6.25 per cent, compared to the previous 6.50 per cent.
Shakey Markets
The equity markets that closed in red yesterday exhibited unreliable progression on Friday, February 7. Before the announcement by RBI governor Sanjay Malhotra, the markets were trading in red.
The trend continued even after the announcement.
However, as the RBI governor’s speech came to an end, and as the day progressed further, the benchmark indices recovered a little, with markets crawling to trade in the green.
Sensex Index
When we look at the benchmark BSE Sensex, the value of the oldest index in Asia, after periods of ups and downs, the index stood in green, rising to 78,146.75, after gains of 88.59 points or 0.11 per cent.
Nifty Index
The affairs at the National Stock Exchange or NSE were no different.
The marquee index, Nifty 50 after enduring crests and troughs, traded in green with gains of 41.70 points or 0.18 per cent, taking the overall value to 23,645.05.
When we look at the banking index, the Nifty Bank index, the benchmark, like Sensex and Nifty wavered, only to trade in red.
At the time of writing, the banking index slumped to 50,319.80 points, having declined by 62.30 points or 0.12 per cent.
Gainers and Losers
When it comes to the gainers and losers, the shares of Bharti Airtel, riding high on bumper Q3 results soared, gaining over 4 per cent. Tata Steel, Ultratech, NTPC, Mahindra & Mahindra, along with Titan made gains of over 1 per cent.
When we look at the laggards, the like of ITC, SBI and TCS were trading in red with cuts of over 1 per cent.
Nestle, ICICI bank and Bajaj Finance also incurred losses at Dalal Street.
