Indian stocks trade higher in opening deals ahead of RBI policy decision

The Sensex was up 187 points or 0.32 percent to trade at 58,486 at 0920 hours; while the Nifty was higher by 52 points or 0.30 percent at 17,434.

ET Now Digital

Updated Aug 5, 2022, 09:28 IST

Sensex up in early deals

Photo : BCCL

Mumbai: Domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty opened on a positive note on Friday ahead of RBI monetary policy decision.

The Sensex was up 187 points or 0.32 percent to trade at 58,486 at 0920 hours; while the Nifty was higher by 52 points or 0.30 percent at 17,434.

The Sensex gain was driven by consumer goods, financial and metal counters.

The Sensex breadth was comfortably in favour of buyers as 21 shares were trading in the green.

In the previous session on Thursday, benchmarks Sensex and Nifty snapped their six-day winning run, falling marginally tracking global cues.

Experts are of the view that the RBI would raise the benchmark rate to at least the pre-pandemic level in today’s policy decision and even further in later months.

Both the central bank and the government have been taking steps to contain inflation which is ruling above the RBI's comfort level of 6 per cent since January this year.

The RBI raised the short-term borrowing rate (repo) twice so far this fiscal -- by 40 basis points (bps) in May and 50 bps in June to tame retail inflation.

"RBI rate action today is unlikely to impact markets. The most likely scenario of a 30 to 35 bps rate hike is already known and discounted by the market . Market will be looking forward to the RBI's commentary on inflation, GDP growth for FY23 and other macros like CAD,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Elsewhere in Asia, barring Hong Kong, other markets were trading with gains, even as China-US tension over Taiwan issue kept investors on edge globally.

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