Bombay Stock Exchange building. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
Sensex and Nifty ended marginally lower on the last trading day of Samvat 2073 ahead of the Muhurat trading tomorrow. BSE Sensex lost 24.81 points to settle at 32,584.35 points and NSE Nifty shaved off 23.6 points to close at 10,210.85 points. During the day, both the benchmark indices traded lower in line with the opening losses due to the slump in most of the banking sector stocks led by Axis Bank. But value buying in the shares of the market cap leader Reliance Industries and Power Grid trimmed the losses. The 30-share barometer Sensex settled flat witnessing a contrary trade in which a 200-point rise provided by Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, and ITC was offset by the dive in Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, and SBI.
Shares of Axis Bank fell to a two-year low, dropped 9.5% to Rs 464.35 after the asset quality worsened in the second-quarter of FY 2018. Axis Bank reported a rise of 5.9% in the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as compared to 4.17% in the same period a year ago. Gross NPA additions for the second quarter stood at Rs 8,936 crore, of which corporate slippages stood at Rs 8,110 crore.
Shares of Reliance Industries and Power Grid emerged as the top gainer, rose 4.5% and 4% respectively, followed by Wipro, ONGC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, NTPC, ITC, and HDFC Bank, gained up to 1.9%. The drop in the heavyweight banking sector stocks contributed heavily to the down surge in the benchmark Sensex. The stocks of Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India alone washed off about 187 points from the index while the other heavyweights helped phenomenally to trim the plunge. The stocks of Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, and ITC added about 2015 points.
“Markets again showed strength in trade Wednesday, ahead of the long weekend on account of Diwali. Markets opened weak on the back of negative news flow about Axis Banks NPAs, and the Bank Nifty index continued to underperform throughout the session. The broader markets reverser direction to recover going into the close to end the session flat. Reliance was the strongest stock of the session notching up gains of 5% whereas Axis Bank on the back of weaker results remained weak. FIIs continue to be net sellers whereas DIIs continue to remain Net buyers overall. Global cues continue to look upbeat and the long-term trend continues to look bullish. We continue to remain cautious in the near term while holding a bullish long-term outlook, we would advice staying in cash at this juncture.” said Nikhil Kamath, Co-Founder and Head of Trading, Zerodha.
