Axis Bank tumbles after MSCI exclusion

Axis Bank tumbled 8.09% to Rs 1,057 at 11:07 IST on BSE after MSCI said it would exclude the stock from its standard and large cap indices with effect from 2 September 2013.

MSCI made the announcement on Thursday, 15 August 2013, when the Indian stock market was shut for a public holiday.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 465.95 points, or 2.41%, to 18,901.64.

On BSE, 1.37 lakh shares were traded in the counter compared with average volume of 1.75 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 1,120 and a low of Rs 1,055 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 1549 on 20 May 2013. It hit a 52-week low of Rs 926.90 on 5 September 2012.

The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 14 August 2013, sliding 10.84% compared with the Sensex's 2.96% decline. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, falling 21.62% as against Sensex's 1.80% fall.

The large-cap private sector bank has an equity capital of Rs 469.02 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

MSCI Barra is a leading provider of benchmark indices and risk management analytics products. Many global mutual funds are linked with MSCI indices. Hence, deletion of a stock from the MSCI index leads to outflow of passive funds that use the MSCI index to benchmark their portfolios.

Meanwhile, shares of Axis Bank also came under pressure after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday, 14 August 2013, said that overseas investors will not be allowed to purchase additional shares in the bank given the foreign shareholding limit of 49% in the stock has been breached.

Axis Bank's net profit jumped 22.14% to Rs 1408.93 crore on 15.87% increase in total income to Rs 9059.12 crore in Q1 June 2013 over Q1 June 2012.

Axis Bank is the third largest private sector bank in India. It has a large footprint of 1947 domestic branches (including extension counters) and 11,245 ATMs spread across the country as on 31 March 2013. The bank also has overseas offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Colombo, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

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