CRR hike, higher inflation not to impact market: Experts

MUMBAI: The cash reserve ratio (CRR) hike and a higher inflation forecast by the Reserve Bank will not have much impact on the stock market as both have already been factored in by market participants, experts said.

"The 0.75 per cent hike in CRR will not impact the market much though the industry anticipated at most a 0.50 per cent hike," Angel Broking's Managing Director, Dinesh Thakkar, told.

An interest rate hike was also not imminent as "banks have a lot of money and there is sufficient liquidity available in the system," he said.

Last Friday, the Reserve Bank had hiked CRR by 0.75 per cent to 5.75 per cent while pegging inflation at 8.5 percent by end-March.

Agreeing with this view, Edelweiss' Institutional Equities Co-Head, Vikas Khemani, said that lowering of the credit growth forecast would also not impact the market.

"Capacity utilisation is picking up along with industrial confidence. By the next quarter, we can expect a better credit growth forecast," he said.

The fore casted credit growth is anyway as per the market expectation, Thakkar said.

"Presently, credit growth is sluggish at 11-12 percent. The market will be happy if it reaches 16-17 percent as it means a GDP growth at 7.5 percent levels. So it should not impact the market," he said.