Indian stock markets closed higher for the second straight day, led by gains in banks, financials, IT and auto stocks.
As was widely expected, the Reserve Bank of India left key policy rates unchanged and maintained its accommodative stance while announcing its latest bi-monthly monetary policy statement. The central bank retained the GDP growth target at 9.5% in FY22 and revised Q3FY22 GDP growth to 6.6%.
The Sensex rose 1,016.03 points or 1.76% to end the session at 58,649.68, and the Nifty was up 293.10 points or 1.71% at 17,469.80.
Volatility gauge, India VIX, eased 6.5%.
Bajaj Finance, Hindalco Industries, Maruti Suzuki, SBI and Bajaj Finserv were among the top Nifty gainers, while Kotak Mahindra Bank, Power Grid, Divis Labs and Indian Oil fell.
All sectoral indices ended in the green, with PSU bank, auto, IT indices rising 2% each. BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices rose over a percent each.
Earlier, With a view to making digital transactions more affordable, the Reserve Bank of India will soon come out with a discussion paper on the reasonableness of charges on transactions through digital mode.
Observing that concerted efforts by all stakeholders have led to a significant increase in digital payments in recent years, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said there have, however, been some concerns on the reasonableness of various charges incurred by customers for digital payments through credit cards, debit cards, prepaid payment instruments (cards and wallets), Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and the like.
Entities involved in providing digital payment services incur costs, which are generally recovered from the merchant or customer or are borne by one or more of the participants, he said while unveiling the bi-monthly monetary policy.
