Banking stocks were in a volatile session during Wednesday's trading as investors placed their bets cautiously amid lower benchmarks performance. Heavyweight ICICI Bank and SBI's upside could not offset losses of major private lenders like Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank and PNB.
At around 2.01 pm, Nifty Bank was trading at 31,688.45 down by 33.80 points or 0.11%. The index has touched an intraday high and low of 31,982.30 and 31,596.75 respectively.
On the index, IDFC First Bank tumbled the most by nearly 2%. However, major lenders like PNB and
Axis Bank which plunged by over 1% added to the sector's downside massively.
Bandhan Bank plunged nearly 1% followed by IndusInd Bank, Bank of Baroda and
HDFC Bank diving by over 0.4% each.
On the positive front, RBL Bank was the top gainer surging by near 4% followed by
ICICI Bank and SBI surging by nearly 1%. Meanwhile, Kotak Bank and Federal Bank gained marginally.
RBI on Tuesday in its working paper titled, "Monetary Policy Transmission in India: New Evidence from Firm-Bank Matched Data" said, "capital infusion in banks can make a critical difference in improving credit supply and capital formation."
Banking stocks remain in focus since the start of this week's trading session ahead of financial performance for the quarter ended December 2020. Many lenders have started to announce their loans and deposits book for the quarter.