The Reserve Bank on Friday morning will announce the decision on interest rate after the conclusion of the three-day monetary policy panel meeting, amid high inflation and weak GDP growth numbers.
Experts are of the view that the central bank is likely to opt for status quo on the short-term lending rate (repo), and will possibly tinker with cash reserve ratio (CRR) keeping in mind the mixed economic trends.
“Coming up: Monetary Policy Statement by #RBI Governor @DasShaktikanta on December 06, 2024, at 10:00 am,” the Reserve Bank announced on social media platform ‘X’.
Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das headed six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) started its meeting to decide on the next set of bi-monthly monetary policy on Wednesday.
Das is chairing the last MPC meeting of his current term which ends on December 10.
The Reserve Bank has kept the repo or short-term lending rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent since February 2023.
It last hiked the repo rate to 6.5 per cent in February 2023 and since then it has held the rate at the same level. The government has tasked the RBI to ensure consumer price index (CPI) based inflation remains at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on the either side.
In an off-cycle meeting in May 2022, the MPC raised the policy rate by 40 basis points and it was followed by rate hikes of varying sizes in the subsequent meetings till February 2023. The repo rate was raised by 250 basis points cumulatively between May 2022 and February 2023.
The MPC members are: Nagesh Kumar, Director and Chief Executive, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, New Delhi; Saugata Bhattacharya, Economist; Ram Singh, Director, Delhi School of Economics; Rajiv Ranjan, Executive Director, RBI; Michael Debabrata Patra, Deputy Governor, RBI; and Shaktikanta Das, Governor, RBI.
Sensex surges 809 pts ahead of RBI policy announcement: Rising for the fifth straight day, benchmark BSE Sensex spurted by 809 points in a choppy trade on Thursday a day ahead of the announcement of the RBI policy review.
The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex jumped 809.53 points, or 1 per cent, to settle at 81,765.86. During the day, it soared 1,361.41 points, or 1.68 per cent, to 82,317.74 but pared gains in the pre-close session on profit-taking by investors.
The NSE Nifty surged 240.95 points, or 0.98 per cent, to 24,708.40. Analysts said benchmark indices maintained their winning run for the fifth day following buying in IT stocks and a rally in the US markets.
From the 30-share Sensex pack, Tata Consultancy Services, Titan, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, HCL Technologies, and Tech Mahindra were the biggest gainers.
NTPC and Asian Paints were the laggards.
“Dow moving past 45,000 for the first time is an indicator of the strength of the US market rally. The macro construct in the US — strong growth and declining inflation support this rally.
“The Fed chief Powell’s remark yesterday that the ‘economy is in remarkably good shape’ is a shot in the arm for the US bulls,” V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said.
The BSE midcap gauge climbed 0.27 per cent and the smallcap index went up by 0.16 per cent. As many as 2,141 stocks advanced while 1,825 declined and 117 remained unchanged on the BSE.
Among sectoral indices, BSE Focused IT soared the most 1.96 per cent, while teck jumped 1.92 per cent, IT by 1.81 per cent and telecommunication 0.95 per cent. Bankex (0.68 per cent) and consumer durables (0.66 per cent) also advanced. BSE services and realty emerged as the laggards.
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