The Indian equity benchmarks moved higher after the Reserve Bank of India kept rates steady at record lows amid inflationary pressure to support the economic growth amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. The Sensex rose as much as 469 points from the day's lowest level and Nifty 50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 17,700 after hitting an intraday low of 17,600.
As of 12:34 pm, the Sensex was up 217 points at 59,252 and Nifty 50 index advanced 84 points to 17,724.
The Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) led by Governor Shaktikanta Das unanimously voted to keep repo rate unchanged at record low of 4 per cent and maintained accommodative. However, the central bank cut the growth outlook and raised inflation target for the current financial year.
The RBI projected growth projection of 7.2 per cent from 7.8 per cent earlier amid volatile crude oil prices and supply chain disruptions due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
The central bank also hinted towards policy normalisation going ahead as it said will withdraw its accommodative stance to focus on withdrawal of accommodation to ensure that inflation remains within the target going forward, while supporting growth, RBI Governor Das said.
Buying was visible across the board as all the 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Metal index's nearly 2 per cent gain. Nifty FMCG, Media, Oil & Gas and PSU Bank indices also rose between 0.8-1.2 per cent.
Broader markets were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.95 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index climbed 0.7 per cent.
Among the individual shares, Ruchi Soya shares from the FPO got listed at Rs 855, a 30 per cent premium from ts FPO price of Rs 650 per share.
Grasim Industries was top Nifty gainer, the stock 3.57 per cent to Rs 1,742. JSW Steel, SBI Life, Adani Ports, Coal India, ITC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, Shree Cements, Dr Reddy's Labs, Reliance Industries, Britannia Industries, UltraTech Cement and Titan also rose between 1-3.4 per cent.
On the flipside, Cipla, Tech Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, NTPC, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC Bank, Larsen & Toubro and TCS were among the notable losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 2,257 shares were advancing while 1,012 were declining on the BSE.
