Friday, December 17, 2010

RBI Left Key Interest Rates on Hold, Cuts SLR to 24%


MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its mid-quarter review of monetary policy on Thursday, kept unchanged the key policy rates. However, it cuts the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) from 25% to 24%. The new rates will be effective from December 18.


The bond markets are likely to be affected by reduction in the SLR of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs). Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) is the portion of deposits that banks park in government securities.


“RBI has decided to reduce the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) from 25 per cent of their NDTL to 24 per cent with effect from December 18, 2010”, the bank said in a release.

RBI


It was expected that Bank will not change the key rates as it has been increased six times since March. Currently the Reverse Repo Rate stands at 5.25%, Repo Rate stands at 6.25% and CRR stands at 6% under the Reserve Bank’s liquidity adjustment facility (LAF).


Reserve Bank of India has aggressively raised the key rates this year, with lending rates raised by 150 basis points and borrowing rates increased by 200 basis points.


As per the RBI policy released today, RBI has also decided to conduct open market operation (OMO) auctions for purchase of government securities for an aggregate amount of Rs 48,000 crore in the next one month, the schedule for which is being issued separately. RBI has taken these two measures to inject liquidity on an enduring basis of the order of Rs 48,000 crore.


The Sensex was up 87.53 points or 0.45% at 19735.30, and the Nifty was down 2.00 points or 0.03% at 5890.30. About 1450 shares advanced, 1235 shares declined, and 777 shares remain unchanged.


View the original article here

0 comments:

Post a Comment