Realty stocks fall as RBI keeps repo rate unchanged

Realty shares slipped into negative terrain on Thursday after the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) in its sixth bi-monthly monetary policy statement for 2019-20 kept the repo rate unchanged at 5.15%, due to rising inflation.

The Nifty Realty index was trading 0.02 per cent down at 326.  From Nifty realty, shares of DLF traded 1% lower, while Mahindra Life, Indiabulls Real Estate, Prestige Estates Projects were falling around 0.6 to 0.30% lower. Contrary to this, Brigade Enterprises was up 3%, Sobha and Godrej Properties were up 1% each and Sunteck and Phoenix Mills gained 0.60% each.

S&P BSE Realty index was trading 0.46% lower at 2,477. On BSE, Indiabulls Real Estate, Omaxe, Prestige and DLF were trading in the red.

Contrary to the trend, benchmark 50-share NSE Nifty50 index was up 57 points at 12,146, and the 30-share BSE S&P Sensex was trading 207 points higher at 41,350. Overall 39 out of 50 shares on Nifty and 18 out of 30 stocks on Sensex were trading in the green.

Except for realty, FMCG and IT indices were also declining today, while all the other sector-based indices followed the broader index trend and traded in the green.

The six-member committee voted unanimously to hold rates, but also said that there is policy space available for further action. Between February and October 2019, the RBI had reduced repo rate by 135 basis points.

"Economic activity remains subdued and the few indicators that have moved up recently are yet to gain traction in a more broad-based manner. Given the evolving growth-inflation dynamics, the MPC felt it appropriate to maintain status quo," the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) said.

The RBI revised upward its CPI inflation target to 6.5 per cent for Q4 of current fiscal. It also set an inflation target of  5.4-5.0 per cent for the first half of 2020-21 and 3.2 per cent for the third quarter of 2020-21.