ET Market Watch: RBI surprise cut lifts D-Street, Sensex rises 447 points, Nifty above 26,100 | The Economic Times Podcast

Hello and welcome, I’m Neha Vashishth and this is your ET Market Watch. Indian markets closed strongly on Friday, driven by a rally in interest rate-sensitive stocks after the Reserve Bank of India surprised with a 25 basis point cut in the repo rate, taking the policy rate down to 5.25%.

The Sensex rose 447 points to close at 85,712, while the Nifty climbed 153 points to close at 26,186.

The financial and automotive sectors led the charge. SBI, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Maruti Suzuki and HCL Tech were among the biggest gainers, each up between 2% and 2.5%.

But zoom out to the week and the picture is more muted. Both benchmarks were largely flat, with the midcap index down 0.7% and small caps down 1.8%.

One notable outlier: IndiGo, which fell 9% this week as the airline suffered widespread cancellations. The regulator has now intervened with temporary relief.

Global markets:

Asia had a mixed day. Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.3% on weak household spending data, while MSCI Asia ex-Japan rose 0.4% on its way to a weekly gain of 1%. In the West, Nasdaq futures rose 0.4% and S&P 500 futures rose 0.2%, indicating a steady start.

Rupee and Crude Oil:
The rupee fell by 5 paise after the policy announcement to close at 89.94 against the dollar. The oil was stable. Brent at $63.32 and WTI at $59.71, with crude on track for a weekly gain of almost 2%.

And that’s your market overview from ET.

I am Neha Vashishth. Thanks for listening to ET Market Watch. Have a nice weekend and I’ll see you next week.