Bank Nifty falls nearly 10% post RBI policy

Bank Nifty has tanked nearly 10% or 1,086 points in past three days as compared to 4.3% fall in benchmark CNX Nifty.

Banking shares continue to remain under pressure for the third day in a row with the Bank Nifty slipping over 1,000 points after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Raghuram Rajan, surprised markets on his policy review by raising interest rates.

Bank Nifty has slipped 150 points at 10,063 points in early morning deals, declining nearly 10% or 1,086 points from Thursday’s close of 11,149. The benchmark index has dipped 4.3% during the same period.

The RBI on Friday had raised repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.5% and it also revised the Marginal Standing Facility by 75 basis points to 9.5%.

Meanwhile, the global ratings agency Fitch on Monday took negative ratings actions against three public sector undertakings (PSU) banks, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and Indian Bank, downgrading long term and viability ratings by one notch each.

Revenue growth was slowing due to lower loan growth and the margins were squeezed due to high funding costs; this had led to pressure on internal capital generation, Fitch said.

Most of the state-owned banks such as Bank of India, Indian Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India and Central Bank of India are trading lower by 2-4% on NSE.