INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NEW DELHI: Most PSU bank stocks were incurring losses during morning trade on Thursday.
The Nifty PSU Bank index was trading 0.81 per cent
down at 2,935 around 10:25 am, with 11 stocks, out of total 12, declining in trade
PSU banks are on a 2-day strike to protest against a "meagre" 2 per cent salary hike offered by Indian Banks Association (IBA) -- the
management body.
Oriental Bank of Commerce (down 1.04 per cent), State Bank of India (down 0.99 per cent), Punjab National Bank (down 0.93
per cent) and Bank of India (down 0.89 per cent) were the top losers in the PSU bank index.
Shares of Bank of Baroda (down 0.87 per cent),
Allahabad Bank (down 0.84 per cent), Union Bank of India (down 0.72 per cent), Andhra Bank (down 0.68 per cent), Syndicate Bank (down 0.51
(down 0.46 per cent) and Canara Bank (down 0.29 per cent) too were suffering.
Meanwhile, Indian Bank (up 0.36 per cent) was the only stock
that was up in the index around that time.
Equity benchmarks pared gains owing to losses in heavyweights such as ICICI Bank, Tata
Consultancy Services, State Bank of India and Sun Pharma.
The NSE Nifty50 index was up 15 points at 10,629, while the BSE Sensex was up 55
points at 34,961.
Among the 50 stocks in the Nifty index, 24 were trading in the green, while 26 were in the red
Reliance Communications, Reliance Naval and Engineering, SAIL, Suzlon Energy and Bharti Infratel were among the most traded stocks on
NSE.
Sun Pharma, Power Grid Corporation and Tata Motors were among the top losers in the Nifty pack of stocks.