Auto, banking, real estate shares fall ahead of RBI policy outcome  

Rate sensitive stocks such as auto, banking and real estate were trading lower ahead of the RBI's monetary policy announcement today. BSE auto index was down 542 pts at 60,803 and BSE Bankex lost 317 pts to 61,796. The BSE Realty index too slipped 47 pts to 6495 in early deals today.

In the auto segment, top losers were Balkrishna Industries (1.96%), Bajaj Auto (1.65%), Tube Investments of India Ltd (2%), Bharat Forge (1.6%) and Maruti  Suzuki (1.32%).

In the banking space, Union Bank (1.40%), Bank of Baroda (0.8%), Axis Bank (0.81%), PNB (1.07%) and SBI (0.6%) were among the top losers ahead of the RBI policy outcome.

In the real estate segment, Oberoi Realty, Anant Raj, Lodha Developers, DLF and Godrej Properties shares fell up to 1.22%.

Meanwhile, BSE Sensex fell 422 points to 72636 and Nifty slipped 164 pts to 22,606 today.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments said, "The focus of the market attention today will be on the monetary stance and the message from the RBI Governor. A 25 bp hike in policy rates is inevitable and already discounted by the market. What is not discounted is the monetary stance and the central bank’s view on the emerging growth-inflation dynamics. Therefore, the market’s response to the policy would be influenced by the Governor’s comments on the emerging scenario. It is important to note that the interest rate differential between India and the US is at very low levels. This is unsustainable. A rate hike to preempt further capital flight has become unavoidable in the context of rising US yields and rising dollar. Therefore, stabilisation of the rupee also will be on top of the RBI Governor’s mind even though the focus will be on growth-inflation dynamics."

The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), headed by RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, will assess a challenging macroeconomic backdrop before announcing its policy decision on October 7. The review comes after the Reserve Bank of India kept the benchmark repo rate unchanged at 5.25% in each of its last four policy meetings.

The central bank had lowered the repo rate by a cumulative 125 basis points during 2025, but has since paused its easing cycle, maintaining the policy rate at 5.25% amid evolving domestic and global economic conditions.