RBI rate cut: Realty, bank, auto stocks zoom

Home and corporate loans is expected to cost less as the RBI today lowered the key interest rate by 0.50 per cent to bolster the economy.

Shares of rate-sensitive realty, bank and auto sectors were on buyer's radar on Tuesday, surging up to 10 per cent, after the Reserve Bank lowered the key interest rate by 0.50 per cent -- the biggest cut in over three years.

Shares of Housing Development and Infrastructure surged 9.83 per cent, Indiabulls Real Estate gained 4.30 per cent, DLF rose by 4.18 per cent, Sobha Ltd was up 3.94 per cent, D B Realty (3.45 per cent), Ashiana Housing (2.13 per cent), Unitech (1.48 per cent) and NBCC (1.48 per cent).

Tracking gains in these stocks, the BSE realty index rose by 1.99 per cent to 1,368.55.

Home and corporate loans is expected to cost less as the RBI today lowered the key interest rate by 0.50 per cent to bolster the economy.

Shares of IndusInd Bank went up by 2.14 per cent, Bank of Baroda gained 1.66 per cent, HDFC Bank (1.20 per cent), Yes Bank (1.16 per cent), SBI (1.02 per cent), Kotak Mahindra Bank (0.74 per cent), PNB (0.30 per cent) and ICICI Bank (0.11 per cent).

The BSE bank index gained 0.90 per cent to 19,769.15. Within minutes of RBI policy, Andhra Bank cut its benchmark lending rates by 0.25 per cent.

The country's largest lender SBI also slashed minimum lending or base rate by 0.4 per cent to 9.3 per cent.

From auto space, Maruti Suzuki climbed 3.12 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra was up 2.48 per cent and Tata Motors rose 1.19 per cent.

Led by gains in these scrips, the auto index rose by 0.76 per cent to 17,143.93.

"The RBI's 50 bps rate cut is an unexpected bonanza," said Arun Gopalan Vice President Research at Systematix Shares and Stocks.

In its fourth bimonthly monetary policy for the current fiscal, RBI cut benchmark repurchase (repo) rate from 7.25 per cent to 6.75 per cent, lowest in four-and-half-years.

The BSE Sensex, which was over 300 points down at one point during the day, staged a recovery after the announcement of the policy and ended 161.82 points higher at 25,778.66.

"Repo rate cut of 50 bps by RBI is a positive surprise. On the back of a slowing private investment, RBI has delivered what industry wanted with an aggressive rate cut. Today's policy action should be accepted positively by both equity and debt markets," said Jyoti Vaswani Chief Investment Officer of Future Generali Life Insurance.