E-Paper
Explained: How changes in repo rates affect stock markets
RBI monetary policy meet: Governor Shaktikanta Das also said inflation is likely to hover around 6.7% for the current year - 2022/23, raising the forecast from the 5.7 % seen earlier.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday increased the key policy rate by 50 basis points to set it at 4.9 per cent. This is the second consecutive increase in the repo rate after May's off-cycle meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee yielded a 40 bps hike to bump it from 4 to 4.4 per cent.
READ: Repo rate hiked again; RBI retains GDP growth forecast at 7.2%
May's repo rate increase - which is the rate at which the RBI lends to commercial banks - from the record low of 4 per cent was the first since August 2018, as well as the first instance of the RBI governor-headed monetary policy committee (MPC) holding an unscheduled meeting for raising interest rates.
What is Repo rate
Repo rate is the interest charged by the RBI when commercial banks borrow from them by selling their securities to the central bank. Essentially it is the interest charged by the RBI when banks borrow from them - much like commercial banks charge you interest for a car loan or home loan.
Repo rate's relation with the stock market
The stock market and the interest rates have an inverse relationship. Every time the central bank increases the repo rate, its immediate impact is seen on the stock markets.
This means that following the hike in the repo rate prompts companies to also cut back on the spending on the expansion, which leads to a dip in growth and affects the profit and future cash flows, resulting in a fall in stock prices.
If several companies follow this suit, it eventually leads to a fall in markets.
READ: Inflation likely to hover around 6.7% for FY 2022/23, says RBI governor
In a nutshell, an increase in interest rates means an increase in savings and a reduction in the flow of capital to the economy, which results in slump in stock markets..
Further, the impact of the change in repo rate down does not have the same effect on all sectors. For example, the capital-intensive sectors such as capital goods, infrastructure, etc, are more vulnerable to these changes due to high capital or debt on the books of these companies. While stocks of sectors like Information Technology (IT) or Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) usually see a lesser impact.
(With agency inputs)
