PSU banks lag; shares fall up to 6.5%

Shares of public sector banks today fell by up to 6.5 per cent as investors chose to book profit amid a weak broader market.
State Bank of India tumbled 6.49 per cent, Oriental Bank of Commerce 5.89 per cent, Punjab National Bank 5.60 per cent, Union Bank of India 5.50 per cent, Bank of India 4.30 per cent and Allahabad Bank 3.75 per cent on BSE.
Among others, Central Bank of India fell by 3.66 per cent, IDBI Bank was down 2.79 per cent, Dena Bank lost 2.10 per cent and United Bank of India 1.37 per cent.
Consequently, the BSE bank index fell 2.11 per cent to end at 16,081.69.

Banking stocks, which had witnessed heavy buying yesterday came down crashing hard after country's biggest lender State Bank of India said bad loans are expected to surge in the March quarter, which may impact profits.
These stocks had gained up to 9 per cent yesterday.

State-run lenders posted poor set of earnings for the December quarter. Bank of Baroda and IDBI Bank posted the highest losses in Indian banking history, while others like Indian Overseas Bank and Dena Bank were also in the red.
Those who managed to be in the black witnessed a huge spurt in bad assets and provisioning, attributed largely to an asset quality review undertaken by the RBI.

Meanwhile, in the broader market the BSE Sensex ended at 23,191.97, down 362.15 points.