With the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raising repo rate by 25 bps to 7.5%, in line with the Street?s expectations, stocks of companies sensitive to interest rates held up fairly well on Thursday. On Wednesday, ahead of RBI?s monetary policy announcement, the Bankex had come off by 1.58% with State Bank of India (SBI stock falling 2.33%. While the BSE Auto Index fell 0.80% on Wednesday, the BSE Bankex and Realty indices were virtually flat, falling just 0.55% and 0.37% respectively.

?The rate hike is unlikely to have any immediate impact on banking stocks since liquidity is comfortable,? said Gopal Agrawal, head of equity, Mirae Asset Global.

?I don?t think this will have a major impact on banks as they will increase interest rates by 15 to 20 basis points. However sentiment wiserate sensitive sector stocks could take a huge hit since nobody really knows when this rate hike cycle is going to end,? said Deven Choksey, MD, K R Choksey Securities.

?A 25 bps hike doesn?t in any way alter the auto sector outlook as the banks are not going to increase the lending rate overnight following today?s hike. As far as automobile stocks are concerned, markets have been continuously adjusting to various news flows pertaining to the sector. Among them Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors looks attractive with improved freight movement and JLR factor respectively. On the other hand Maruti looks unattractive mainly because of the ongoing workers strike,? said Mahantesh Sabarad, senior VP, equity research at Fortune Equity Brokers.

Choksey said real estate companies who have debt on their books will be impacted to the extent of 1% in terms of servicing their debt while sales volume of commercial vehicle segment are expected to come down by 5%. ?I would advice investors to take fresh positions in these sectors only with a long term view,? Choksey said.

So far during the year till date, the BSE Realty Index has fallen 26% while bankex and auto index have fallen 9.74% and 16.41% respectively. This is when compared to the BSE Sensex fall of 12.30% during the same period.