Memes flood Twitter as RBI interest hike clashes with LIC IPO day

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday announced an off-cycle meeting to hike its key lending rate by 40 basis points to 4.40 per cent. The central bank also raised the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points. The repo rate was increased after two years of accommodative stance, with RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das attributing the move to containing the ongoing inflation. But, investors were most taken by surprise with the fact that RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting collided with the first day of the most-awaited LIC mega-IPO to raise Rs 21,000 crores from investors.

This clash of RBI's first repo rate hike after May 2020 and LIC IPO opening meant a barrage of reactions from investors on Twitter in the form of memes and jokes.

"I am convinced that the RBI Governor & LIC IPO team are definitely not in good terms!," wrote one Twiiter user.

“The real surprise is not RBI action but it happened on the LIC IPO opening date itself,” another remarked.

Check out these funny reactions that kept floating on Twitter throughout the day:

One meme referred to RBI as Kattappa from Baahubali.

Ashneer Grover from Shark Tank memes were inevitably used.

Another meme called the rate hike "out of syllabus"

Another meme referred to the bloodbath in the Indian market as RBI's impact

The move by RBI made equity markets fell sharply on Wednesday, with the Sensex crashing 1,060.64 points after the increased benchmark lending rate.