MUMBAI: India’s benchmark indexes on Tuesday logged their highest closing levels in nearly four months, fuelled by gains in heavyweight financials after the central bank relaxed deposit buffer rules for lenders.
The Nifty 50 rose 0.17% to 24,167.25 and the BSE Sensex added 0.24% to 79,595.59, their highest closing levels since January 2.
This was the sixth session of gains for both benchmarks.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday directed lenders to assign a lower-than-proposed buffer rate of 2.5% on digitally linked deposits and reduced the ‘run-off’ factor on wholesale deposits into banks from non-financial entities.
IIFL Capital estimated that these measures could boost the banks’ net interest margin between 1 bps and 18 bps and add about 1%-4% to net profit.
The Nifty Bank index rose 0.6% and hit a record high for the second consecutive session, with HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank hitting record high levels for a third straight session.
Kotak Mahindra Bank also hit a lifetime high, rising 1.2%.
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