Equity indices fall by 0.5 pc, banking stocks worst hit

Equity benchmark indices ended lower on Monday with investors trying to gauge the impact of Supreme Court verdict on telecom operators regarding the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues and the consequent result on banking sector.

The apex court last week directed telcos to clear their dues totalling nearly Rs one lakh crore to the government by March 17, and threatened of contempt proceedings if they did not.

The BSE S & P Sensex closed 202 points lower at 41,056 while the Nifty 50 slipped by 68 points to 12,046. Experts said that bank stocks will remain under pressure given high inflation and no possibility of an interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the near-term.

Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty PSU bank down by 2.96 per cent.

Among stocks, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, State Bank of India and Yes Bank closed in the negative zone. In fact, Yes Bank fell by nearly 4 per cent to Rs 37.35.

The other prominent losers were Coal India which dipped by 3.8 per cent, ONGC which lost 3.2 per cent and Cipla which closed 3.1 per cent lower.

However, Titan, GAIL, Nestle India, Vedanta and Tata Consultancy Services gained by thin margins.

Meanwhile, Asian shares moved toward a three-week top as Chinese efforts to cushion the blow from a coronavirus outbreak cheered investors.

But Japanese stocks faltered amid growing recession risks. Japan's Nikkei tumbled by 0.69 per cent after the country's economy shrank at the fastest pace in the December quarter since the second quarter of 2014.

The Shanghai Composite index added 2.28 per cent after the country's central bank lowered one of its key interest rates and injected more liquidity into the system.