Nifty Realty soars over 4%, Auto index jumps 1% post RBI's 50 bps repo rate cut

Interest-rate-sensitive realty index surged 4.25% to 1,035.35 after the Reserve Bank of India announced a jumbo rate cut of 50 basis points to 5.5% to prop up growth.

Following the rate cut, the key policy rate eased to 5.5% – a three-year low – providing relief to home, auto and corporate loan borrowers.

Notably, this is the lowest repo rate in three years.

NIFTY Auto also climbed 1.15% to 23,574, with Ashok Leyland (+3.36%), Maruti (+2.81%), Hero MotoCorp (+2%) and Eicher Motors (+1.3%) being the top gainers.

The NIFTY50 is up 0.99% to 24,995, while the SENSEX advanced 744 points to 82,182.

For the NIFTY pack, top gainers are Shriram Finance, Bajaj Finance, JSW Steel, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, Maruti, Trent and Eternal.

BEL, Sun Pharma, HDFC Life, Nestle India, Apollo Hospital, and SBI Life were the laggards.

"A third straight cut in the repo rates this year with 50 bps cut instead of an estimate of 25 bps is a pleasant move. This demonstrates a pro-growth stance and a front-loading of rate cuts given our stable economic growth and declining inflation," Umeshkumar Mehta, CIO, SAMCO Mutual Fund told PTI, adding, "A change in policy stance from accommodative to neutral is also justified as it can help to strike a right balance between growth and inflation, especially if geopolitical issues escalate further."

Post detailed assessment of the evolving financial and macroeconomic development, even the economic outlook, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to reduce the repo rate by 50 basis points, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said.

The governor, however, kept the GDP forecast for FY26 unchanged at 6.5%. The inflation projection was lowered from 4% to 3.7%.