INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NEW DELHI: The domestic equity market fell for a second straight on Monday amid heavy selling in both public and private banks, as investors
on Dalal Street took a cautious stance ahead of the RBI rate decision.
Investors' risk appetite remained subdued ahead of the Reserve Bank
rising inflation.
"With NPA sale and merger plans gaining traction, banks swung the benchmark indices viciously even as investors took a
cautious stance ahead of RBI rate decision
Markets so far have been riding on earnings and macro positivity, as well as monsoon cheer, but there are expectations of RBI moving rates
points, or 0.61 per cent, to settle at 35,012, while the Nifty index fell 68 points, or 0.63 per cent, to finish Monday's session at
10,629.
HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever and HDFC remained the top drags on the Sensex index
The board of ICICI Bank has begun looking for a new chairman as the term of the incumbent, MK Sharma, expires at the end of this
month.
Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel, ITC and Larsen Toubro also featured among major drags on the Sensex.
On the
other hand, Dr Reddy's Labs, Infosys and Mahindra Mahindra bucked the trend, emerging among the top gainers in the Sensex pack.
Shares of
Dr Reddy's Labs closed the day with a gain of nearly 3 per cent after the drug maker said that the USFDA audit of the company's API
Srikakulam plant in Andhra Pradesh has been completed with no observations
However, shares of Cadila Healthcare finished today's trade 0.37 per cent down at Rs 352.50 even as the company received final approval
from the USFDA to market Doxycycline Hyclate capsules USP, antibiotic used for treating bacterial infections.
Most PSU bank stocks incurred
losses in Monday's session in the wake of media reports that the government is pushing loss-making public banks to sell their riskier assets
to larger peers, such as SBI, to reduce the capital requirement of public sector lenders that have been hit hard by the RBI's latest norms
on provisioning for bad debt.
Telecom major Idea Cellular closed the day with a gain of 1.78 per cent as the company has added the maximum
number of subscribers in April 2018, according to the data released by the COAI last Friday.
Among the sectors, BSE Realty plunged over 3
per cent, emerging as the top loser among sectoral indices
It was followed by power, telecom, capital goods, bank, consumer durables, utilities, industrial, finance and FMCG, each suffering losses
of over 1 per cent.
Only energy, IT, metal and teck managed to settle in the green on Monday
Global shares climbed on Monday on easing worries of a trade war between the United States and other major economies, while investors
focusing on strong US jobs data.
