Sensex falls by 298 points, PSU banks underperform

Equity benchmark indices closed 0.7 per cent lower on Thursday, dragged by public sector banks, ahead of the expiry of December series futures and options (F & O) contracts.

At the closing bell, the BSE S & P Sensex was down by 298 points to 41,164 while the Nifty 50 slipped by 88 points at 12,127.

Except for Nifty metal and media, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red. Nifty PSU bank dropped by 1.44 per cent, pharma by 0.97 per cent, IT by 0.45 per cent and FMCG by 0.44 per cent. Nifty metal, however, moved up by 0.58 per cent.

Among stocks, government-owned Oriental Bank of Commerce fell by 4.2 per cent, Punjab National Bank by 1.3 per cent and State Bank of India by 0.3 per cent. Private lender Yes Bank too dragged down by 4.4 per cent at Rs 48.95 per share after a rating downgrade by Brickwork.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel and index heavyweight Reliance Industries closed 1.9 per cent lower while Sun Pharma dived by 1.8 per cent and Adani Ports by 1.7 per cent.

However, ONGC closed 2.5 per cent higher at Rs 129.15 per share. Metal majors were on a high with Vedanta moving up by 1.9 per cent at Rs 150.90 per share, JSW Steel by 1 per cent and Tata Steel by 0.9 per cent. NTPC, Coal India, Eicher Motors and Asian Paints too closed in the green.

Meanwhile, Asian stock markets were in the positive zone following Christmas Day. The Shanghai Composite was up by 0.85 per cent and the Nikkei 225 in Japan was 0.6 per cent higher. South Korea's Kospi ticked up by 0.36 per cent but Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell by 0.15 per cent.

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