Banking stocks performed steadily amid a broader bullish market tone on Thursday. The sector was led by heavyweights HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank, although, the upside was at a slower pace. However, Bank Nifty has underperformed benchmark Nifty 50 despite trading in the green.
At around 12.25 pm, Bank Nifty was trading at 32,863.40 up by 35.60 points or 0.11%. The index has touched an intraday high and low of 33,259.15 and 32,824.90 respectively.
HDFC Bank was the top gainer soaring by 1.3% ahead of its parent HDFC's March 2021 quarterly result announcement later today. IndusInd Bank followed with a 0.7% upside. Bandhan Bank, Axis Bank and RBL Bank were marginally up.
On the downside front, on Bank Nifty,
AU Small Finance Bank took lead tumbling by nearly 3% followed by Federal Bank plunging by 1.5%. PNB and Kotak Bank followed slipping by 0.7% and 0.6% respectively.
Stocks like SBI, IDFC First Bank and ICICI Bank dived between 0.3-0.5%.
Indian markets recorded a positive opening on Friday tracking positive global cues as the latest economic data of some countries boosted the performance. Amid positive global cues, the domestic equities escaped the brunt of rising Covid cases. India continues to report more than 4 lakh new Covid cases daily. In the last 24 hours, the country posted over 4.14 lakh new Covid cases with 3.927 deaths. This would be for the tenth-consecutive day where the daily death count has stayed over 3,000-mark.
Economic recovery hopes overshadowed inflation risk concerns due to the Covid-19 surge.