Realty shares slip as RBI dashes hope of monetary stimulus

Realty stocks witnessed a trend reversal and entered into the negative terrain after the Reserve Bank of India, kept the key policy rate viz. the repo rate and CRR unchanged at its mid-quarter policy review.

Unitech is currently trading at Rs. 20.90, down by 0.60 points or 2.79% from its previous closing of Rs. 21.50 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 21.60 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 22.05 and Rs. 20.50 respectively. So far 1740753 shares were traded on the counter.

DLF is currently trading at Rs. 189.40, down by 7.40 points or 3.76% from its previous closing of Rs. 196.80 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 198.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 201.35 and Rs. 187.15 respectively. So far 648189 shares were traded on the counter.

Indiabulls Real Estate is currently trading at Rs. 54.50, down by 1.80 points or 3.20% from its previous closing of Rs. 56.30 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 57.90 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 57.95 and Rs. 53.50 respectively. So far 311390 shares were traded on the counter.

Housing Development & Infrastructure is currently trading at Rs. 72.55, down by 1.65 points or 2.22% from its previous closing of Rs. 74.20 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 75.20 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 77.10 and Rs. 71.00 respectively. So far 2873724 shares were traded on the counter.

DB Realty is currently trading at Rs. 82.00, down by 1.50 points or 1.80% from its previous closing of Rs. 83.50 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 87.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 87.00 and Rs. 81.25 respectively. So far 9337 shares were traded on the counter.

Anant Raj Industries is currently trading at Rs. 45.50, down by 1.65 points or 3.50% from its previous closing of Rs. 47.15 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 48.55 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 48.85 and Rs. 44.10 respectively. So far 81119 shares were traded on the counter.

Dampening the growing sanguinity in financial markets, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), often regarded as one of the world's most aggressive central banks, lived up to the tag as they dashed all hopes of slashing key interest rates by leaving them unmoved in its recent mid-quarter monetary policy review meet. The RBI maintained status quo on the repo rate, rate at which banks borrow money from RBI, keeping it unchanged from its 8 percent levels.

Consequently, the reverse repo rate, rate at which Reserve Bank borrows money from banks, under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) remained unchanged at 7.0 percent, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 9.0 percent. Meanwhile, scheduled banks’ cash reserve ratio (CRR), ratio which individual banks need to keep on hand in the form of cash reserves with the central bank, was also left unchanged at 4.75 percent of their net demand and time liabilities.

The central bank’s move has defied wider market expectations of a cut in key interest rates by 25 basis points as they expected RBI to employ monetary easing measures to bring the economy out of doldrums. The IIP numbers released by the government last week suggested that industrial production grew at a frustratingly slow pace while the country's economic growth rate slipped to 5.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011-12, lowest in nearly 9 years due to poor performance of the manufacturing and farm sectors.