BENGALURU: Indian shares held gains on Friday, with the benchmark indexes Nifty 50 and Sensex hitting fresh record highs, after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stood pat on key rates for a fifth consecutive time.

The NSE Nifty 50 index added 0.37% to 20,976.70 points, while the S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.36% to 69,770.14 as of 10:10 a.m. IST.

The RBI maintained its key repo rate at 6.50% on Friday, amid robust economic growth and expectations of a rise in food prices in coming months.

Monetary policy will remain actively disinflationary, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said, adding that the fundamentals of Indian economy remained strong.

Indian shares settle lower ahead of RBI policy

Rate-sensitive shares like banks, financial services, public sector banks, private banks, realty rose between 0.5% and 1.2%, while auto stocks were flat.