Sensex extends losses, Nifty slips below 8,900 as private bank stocks slide

The benchmark indices continued to trade flat in the afternoon trade as investors remained on the sidelines ahead of the US president Donald Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.

The losses were, however, capped by gains in index heavyweight Reliance Industries, which surged to over eigth-year high on continued hopes about its telecom unit Reliance Jio.

At 03:12 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 28,802, down 90 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 8,897, down 42 points. 

In the broader market, BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices added 0.3% and 0.4%, respectively. 

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1,314 shares rose and 1,340 shares fell. A total of 208 shares were unchanged.

Nifty private bank index (down 1%) was the leading sectoral loser, led by losses in Axis Bank (down 3%), Citi Union Bank (down 1.6%), Kotak Bank (down 1.5%) and IndusInd Bank (down 1.3%).

Reliance Industries (RIL) rallied over 6% to Rs 1,256, hitting an over 8-year high. The stock is trading at its highest level since May 30, 2008. A sharp rally in stock has seen the market capitalisation of RIL crossing Rs 4 lakh crore.

Lakshmi Vilas Bank rose over 2% to Rs 160.25 after a large bulk deal of 37.85 lakh shares was executed on the scrip at Rs 159 per share in opening trade on the BSE today, 27 February 2017.

Gayatri Projects rose over 4% to Rs 143 after a joint venture between the company's arm and two other firms completed the construction of a 660-megawatts thermal plant unit.

GMR Infrastructure rose as much as 7.4% to its highest since January 6, 2016 after the company said it had completed strategic debt restructuring of a unit, leaving its consortium of lenders with 52.4% stake.

Overseas, Asian stock markets were lower as investors looked ahead to Trump's speech to Congress for details of promised tax cuts and infrastructure spending. Japan's nikkei shed 1%, while China's Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slipped 0.7% and 0.2%.