BSE Sensex slides around 200 points; banks lead fall

Reuters Market Eye - The BSE Sensex fell on Friday, led by a decline in bank shares as RBI chief Raghuram Rajan's comments on inflation being still high were seen weighing on market sentiment.

The BSE Sensex was down 183 points , while the broader Nifty fell 55 points at 3.07 pm.

Markets were also cautious ahead of June-quarter current account deficit numbers due Monday, with economists expecting the gap to be higher than the March quarter's $18.1 billion, given the sharp rise in trade deficit and lower remittances during the period.

ICICI Bank Ltd fell 2.5 percent, while HDFC Bank Ltd was down 2.28 percent.

 

However, shares in Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd gained 6.1 percent and Videocon Industries was up 4.8 percent after a drilling campaign off Brazil's northeastern coast showed an area controlled by Petrobras and the Indian companies likely holds more than a billion barrels of oil.

(Reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi)