Indian stock markets shut today for Good Friday

NEW DELHI: Indian stock markets will remain shut today on account of Good Friday. The usual trade will resume next week. Earlier, on Tuesday, markets were shut for Mahavir Jayanti.

Again, on April 14, markets will be shut for trade on account of Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Jayanti. Meanwhile, Indian equity indices extended gains for the fifth session in a row on Thursday, as the Reserve Bank of India makes a surprise decision of keeping the repo rate unchanged to assess the effects of the policy rate tightening so far. BSE Sensex went up 143 points to settle at 59,832.97 while NSE Nifty surged 42 points to end at 17,599.15 on Thursday.

Among the sectoral indices, realty rose almost 3 per cent. Energy, Pharma, Auto and Metal were among the gainers with less than a per cent jump. IT struggled as it shed 0.7 per cent. FMCG and Consumer Durable also ended in the red. The Reserve Bank of India, in its first monetary policy review meeting in 2023-24, decided to keep the key benchmark interest rate - the repo rate - unchanged at 6.5 per cent with readiness to act should the situation so warrant.

The central bank conducts six bi-monthly reviews of its monetary policy in a financial year. Five out of six members of MPC voted to remain focused on the policy stance of 'withdrawal of accommodation' to ensure inflation aligns with the target while focusing on growth, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said at the post-meeting remarks. At the last MPC meeting of the RBI in early February, it decided to raise the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.5 per cent to manage inflation.

Raising interest rates is a monetary policy instrument that typically helps suppress demand in the economy, thereby helping the inflation rate decline. Retail inflation had again been staying above the RBI's tolerance limit of 6 per cent for two consecutive months since January. In February, India's retail inflation stood at 6.44 per cent, while in January, it was at 6.52 per cent. India's retail inflation was above RBI's 6 per cent target for three consecutive quarters and had managed to fall back to the RBI's comfort zone only in November 2022.