Indian Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty experienced a big fall on Friday before closing for the weekend, mostly due to foreign fund outflows and selling in banking shares.
On their second straight day of losses, the 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 501.51 points or 0.61 per cent to settle at 81,757.73; while the 50-share NSE Nifty dropped 143.05 points or 0.57 per cent to close at 24,968.40.
During the day, the Sensex had shed 651.11 points or 0.79 per cent to hit a low of 81,608.13.
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Analysts blamed cautious investor behavior over banking stocks after Axis Bank revealed its latest financial results, which were lower than market expectations in its 3 per cent dip in the June quarter consolidated net profit at ₹6,243.72 crore.
The low-end results were impacted by the implementation of changes in non-performing assets and loan upgrade policy.
It was not unexpected then that Axis Bank stocks tumbled the most by 5.24 per cent on Friday.
“Notably, Axis Bank's GDR tumbled 4.8 per cent to USD 64.30 on Thursday, following a deterioration in the bank's asset quality during the June quarter," noted Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research, HDFC Securities.
Among blue-chip bank stocks, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and State Bank of India ended lower. Others among the laggards were Bharat Electronics, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Titan and Eternal.
Following the decline in bank stocks, the BSE Bankex ended 1.33 per cent lower at 62,741.65.
However, Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, HCL Tech and Infosys were among the gainers.
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Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹3,694.31 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.
In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi and Japan’s Nikkei 225 index settled lower, while Shanghai’s SSE Composite index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended in positive territory.
European markets were trading with gains, as were the US markets that ended higher on Thursday.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.92 per cent to USD 70.16 a barrel.
On Thursday, the Sensex dropped 375.24 points or 0.45 per cent to settle at 82,259.24. The Nifty ended lower by 100.60 points or 0.40 per cent to 25,111.45.
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