Sensex slips 111 pts, manages to end above 36,000; SBI shares dive 5%, other PSBs crack 2-7%

Indian stock markets closed lower after falling heavily in the afternoon trades on Thursday with Sensex and Nifty finishing the week above their respective psychological levels of 36,000 and 11,000 achieved this week. In the intraday trading, the benchmark Sensex tumbled 338.29 points or 0.93% to hit a day’s low of 35,823.35 while the broader Nifty index washed off as much as 76.8 points to hit the day’s low of 11,009.2. A decline in the shares of heavyweight companies such as State Bank of India, Infosys, TataConsultancy Sevices, Maruti Suzuki, ITC, HDFC and Reliance Industries steered the headline indices to lose the shine in Thursday’s session. Shares of India’s largest bank State Bank of India emerged as the biggest losers among the Sensex stocks diving as much as 5% followed by Adani Ports, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Hero MotoCorp, TCS and Maruti Suzuki.

Today morning, the domestic stock markets opened little higher with Sensex and Nifty starting at fresh highs but both the key indices very quickly swung into losses within seconds of beginning trades following caution over F&O expiry. The stock of SBI crashed as much as 5.47% to the day’s low of Rs 311.85 before settling down 5.07% at Rs 313.15 while the benchmark Nifty PSU Bank index shed 5.24% end at 3,757.7. A massive slide in all other components of Nifty PSU Bank was seen with shares of PNB, Syndicate Bank, Indian Bank, Bank of Baroda, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Canara Bank, Union Bank Andhra Bank, Allahabad Bank, and Bank of India lost 2-7% in Thursday volatile activity. BSE Sensexended 111.2 points or 0.31% at 36,050.44 while NSE Nifty lost 16.35 points or 0.15% to conclude at 11,069.65. During the week, Sensex had gained 538.86 points whereas Nifty had advanced 174.95 points.

Shares of Dr Reddy’s Lab fell 4.01% to the day’s low of Rs 2,458.95 before finishing down 2.26% at Rs 2,504 as the drugmaker reported a 38.51% decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 302.7 crore for the third quarter ended 31 December 2017. Shares of ICICI Bank, Coal India, Axis Bank, L&T, Tata Steel, Kotak MahindraBank emerged as the only notable gainers among the Sensex scrips rising 0.6-1.6%. Shares of SBI, Infosys, TCS, Maruti Suzuki, ITC, HDFC and Reliance Industries contributed the most to the Sensex decline. Collectively these seven stocks alone wiped off as much as 180.48 points out of the 111-point drop in the index while an uptick in ICICI Bank, L&T, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank added 90.59 points to the index.

Among the broader market indices of NSE, Nifty Next 50, Nifty Midcap 50, Nifty 100, Nifty 200, Nifty 500, Nifty, Nifty Mid100 Free, and Nifty Small100 Free lost 0.3-1.4% while India Vix shed 2.43%. Out of the sectoral indices of NSE, seven sectoral indices ended in the red with Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Pharma, Nifty IT, Nifty Media, Nifty Auto and Nifty Realty index losing the most. A heavy trading volume had been witnessed in the shares of State Bank of India as turnover crossed Rs 1,34,8.88 crore on Thursday after Arun Jaitley detailed PSU bank recap plan yesterday. In the opening session, BSE Sensex started the day at 36,208.39 up by 46.75 points while NSE Nifty began at 11,095.6, up by 9.6 points.

In a press conference held on Wednesday, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley detailed about the Modi government’s mega plan of Rs 2.11 lakh crore to recapitalise the NPA-laden PSU banks. The Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar laid down 6-point reforms for the PSBs and said their performance will be under the annual assessment. Out of the 21 PSBs, IDBI Bank emerged as the biggest beneficiary as the bank was allocated a whopping Rs 10,610 crore followed by Bank of India (Rs 9,232 crore), SBI (Rs 8,800 crore), UCO Bank (Rs 6,507 crore), Central Bank of India (Rs 5,158 crore) and PNB (Rs 5,473 crore)from the government.