Sensex rises 110 points, banking, realty stocks rally

Mumbai, April 17 (IANS) A benchmark index for Indian equities markets was trading 110 points or 0.64 percent higher around 11.30 a.m. Tuesday after the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) announced the cut in interest rates.

The RBI in its annual monetary policy for 2012-13 cut some key rates by 50 basis points in a bid to push industrial growth and stimulate economy -- a move that may also see interest rates falling on housing, automobile and commercial loans.

Announcing the monetary policy for the current fiscal, RBI Governor D. Subbarao said the repurchase rate was being cut by 50 basis points to 8 percent, which will automatically see the reverse repurchase rate also drop to 7 percent from 7.5 percent.

The news buoyed the 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,200.97 points, was ruling 17,261.04 points around 11:30 am, up 0.64 percent or 110.09 points from its previous close at 17,150.95 points.

The 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was trading 0.52 percent higher at 5,253.30 points.

There was good buying support in interest rates sensitive banking stocks after the rate cut. The country's largest lender State Bank of India was ruling 0.95 percent higher at Rs.2,286.95.

The BSE banking index was trading 59.50 points higher at 12,088.11 points. Realty index too came out with healthy performance with a rise of about 22.95 points at 1,804.42. Auto index rose by 37.99 points at 10,326.93 and consumer goods index grew by 35.11 at 10,044.41.

The midcap index of the BSE was up 16.54 points while the smallcap index was ruling 16.73 points higher.

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