NEW DELHI: Buoyed by strong gains in State Bank of India (up 4.59 per cent), the Nifty PSU Bank index was trading 3.63 per cent up at 2,918 around 10:40 am on Wednesday, emerging as the top sectoral gainer on NSE.SBI on Tuesday posted a standalone net loss at Rs 7,718 crore in the March quarter, due to higher provisions for bad loans and gratuity, and lower trading income.
However, investors, as well as brokers on Dalal Street, gave thumbs up to the quarterly result of the bank.
Global brokerage firm Jefferies maintained 'buy' on SBI with a target price of Rs 355 post quarterly results.Shares of Bank of Baroda (up 2.75 per cent), Andhra Bank (up 1.59 per cent), Canara Bank (up 1.53 per cent) and Bank of India (up 1.16 per cent) were also trading with decent gains.
Shares of Syndicate Bank (up 0.97 per cent), IDBI Bank (up 0.96 per cent), Oriental Bank of Commerce (up 0.71 per cent), Indian Bank (up 0.65 per cent), Union Bank of India (up 0.57 per cent), Allahabad Bank (up 0.51 per cent) and Punjab National Bank (up 0.06 per cent) were also in the green.Sensex and Nifty were in the negative territory on selling in oil, metals, private bank, financial and auto stocks amid sustained capital outflows by foreign funds.
Benchmark NSE Nifty50 index was down 38 points at 10,498, while the BSE Sensex was 67 points down at 34,584.Among the 50 stocks in the Nifty index, 18 were trading in the green, while 32 were in the red.