Indian stocks steady after RBI policy on expected lines

 NEW DELHI: Indian stock indices traded near flatline on Friday morning as market participants had already discounted the RBI's monetary policy announcements. Benchmark Sensex and Nifty were trading in a range of (-)0.1-(+)0.1 when writing this report.

Britania, Titan, Asian Paints, IndusInd Bank, and L&T were the top five gainers at the NSE, while HDFC Life, Tata Steel, ONGC, M&M, and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the top losers.

Overall Indian stocks have been buoyant over the past fortnight or so due to the continued inflow of foreign investments, relatively lower crude oil prices, more than estimated GDP numbers, and a consistent decline in inflation.

The key highlights from the three-day RBI monetary policy review meeting were the unchanged repo rate, lowering of inflation projection, and retention of previously forecasted GDP numbers for 2023-24.

RBI lowered India's inflation projection for 2023-24 to 5.1 per cent against its April estimate of 5.2 per cent.

On a quarterly basis, retail inflation (or Consumer Price Index) in Q1 is seen at 4.6 per cent, Q2 at 5.2 per cent, Q3 at 5.4 per cent, and Q4 at 5.2 per cent, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said Thursday while reading out the monetary policy statement after a three-day deliberation.Benchmark Sensex and Nifty were trading in a range of (-)0.1-(+)0.1 when writing this report.