Sensex Slumps After Hawkish Tone In RBI Policy

New Delhi: The MPC has delivered in line with market expectations on rates, stance and tone, with retention of rates and stance and the tone turning hawkish, says V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

The significant change is the upward revision in FY24 CPI inflation projection from 5.1 per cent to 5.4 per cent. This means the high policy rates will remain high for long and, therefore, a rate cut can be expected only in Q1 FY25, he said.

From the market perspective, there are no positive or negative surprises in the policy, he added.

Ajit Kabi, Banking analyst at LKP Securities, said the RBI has kept the policy rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent in the recent MPC meet.

The inflation may not cause worries (excluding CPI). The CPI forecast for FY24 has raised to 5.4 per cent from 5.1% estimated earlier, he added.

Moreover, the real GDP growth forecast was pegged at 6.6 per cent, he said, adding the RBI MPC remains resolute in its commitment to align inflation with the 4 per cent target and anchor inflation expectations.

BSE Sensex is trading down 326 points after RBI policy announcement at 65,669 points.

Asian Paints is down more than 2 per cent, Tata Motors and Nestle are down more than 1 per cent.